Hart,     Saittuol,     1845-1917. 
The   witness    of    the    church 


BX    5995     .H36    A3    1916 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


The  Bishop  Paddock  Lectures 
1915-16 


BY  THB  SAME  AUTHOR 

FAITH  AND  THE   FAITH 

The  Bohlen  Lectttres,  1914 
Crown  8vo,       Net  $0.80 

A  Manual  of 

SHORT  DAILY  PRAYERS 

FOR  Families 

Compiled  by 
The  Rev.  SamuelHabt,  D.D. 

Printed  in  Red  and  Black.    Net  $0.60 
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THE  WITNESS  OF  THE 

CHURCH  ^^^ir"*. 


V 

N^ 


mt  ^abtiotfe  Eectureg  191546    \%^  ^,^j,v> 


BY 

SAMUEL  HART 

DEAN  OF  BKKKELET  DIVIWITT  SCHOOL 


LONGMANS,   GREEN  AND  CO. 

FOURTH  AVENUE  &  30th  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,    LONDON 

BOMBAY,   CALCtnTA,  AND  MADRAS 

1916 


Copyright,  1916 
BT 

SAMUELIHART 


THE  BISHOP  PADDOCK  LECTURESHIP 

This  Lectureship  was  founded  in  1880,  with  an  en- 
dowment of  ten  thousand  dollars,  by  George  A.  Jarvis 
of  Brooklyn,  moved  thereto  by  gratitude  to  God  for  the 
goodness  and  mercy  that  had  followed  him  all  the  days 
of  his  life,  and  impressed  by  a  deep  sense  of  the  good 
which  would,  with  God's  blessing,  grow  out  of  an  en- 
dowment for  the  encouragement  of  "the  defence  and 
confirmation  of  the  Gospel"  by  godly  and  well-learned 
men.  He  named  it  after  his  former  beloved  pastor  and 
ever-endeared  friend,  Benjamin  Henry  Paddock,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Lecturer  is  appointed  by  the  Dean  of  the 
General  Theological  Seminary,  the  Bishop  of  Massa- 
chusetts, the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Long  Island,  and  their  successors  in  office,  or  such  of 
them  as  may  accept  such  trust,  who  are  designated  and 
constituted  The  Board  of  Appointment.  He  must  be  an 
ordained  minister  in  good  standing  of  this  Church,  or  of 
some  Church  in  communion  with  it;  and  shall  deliver 
at  such  time  and  place  as  may  be  required  a  Course  of 
Lecture  Sermons,  in  number  not  less  than  four  nor  more 
than  seven.  And  no  previous  Lecturer  shall  be  eligible 
unless  at  least  seven  years  shall  have  intervened  between 
the  two  courses. 

The  subjects  of  the  Lectures  are  to  be  such  as  apper- 
tain to  the  defence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
revealed  in  the  Holy  Bible  and  illustrated  in  the  Book 


vi    THE  BISHOP  PADDOCK  LECTURESHIP 

of  Common  Prayer,  against  the  varying  errors  of  the 
day,  whether  materialistic,  rationalistic,  or  professedly 
religious ;  and  also  to  its  defence  and  confirmation  in 
respect  of  such  central  truths  as  the  Trinity,  the  Atone- 
ment, Justification,  and  the  Inspiration  of  the  Word 
of  God;  and  of  such  central  facts  as  the  Church's  divine 
Order  and  Sacraments,  her  historical  Reformation,  and 
her  rights  and  power  as  a  pure  and  national  Church. 
And  other  subjects  may  be  chosen,  if  unanimously  ap- 
proved by  the  Board  of  Appointment  as  being  both  timely 
and  also  within  the  true  intent  of  this  Lectureship. 

Under  this  appointment  of  the  Board  created  by  the 
trust,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Hart,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Berkeley 
Divinity  School,  Middletown,  Connecticut,  delivered  at 
the  General  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  the 
Lectures  for  the  years  1915-16  contained  in  this  volume. 


CONTENTS 

Lectuhe  I 

PLAN  AND  PREPARATION 


PAGE 
8 


Prefatory;    outUne •• 

The  Church  in  the  Divine  Mind  » 

I.        The  Dispensations— Covenants    •.••,•••  V"  l' ."  "J  VV^f  la 

1.     God's  dealings  with  man  sinless  but  imperfect  13 

2      His  dealings  with  man  imperfect  and  smful  . .  1* 

3.     His  dealings  including  all  mankind  15 

n.      The  Church  claims  to  have  history J  J 

1.  God's  plan  apart  from  sin ^^ 

2.  His  plan  to  redeem    *^ 

3.  Progress  in  spite  of  failures    ^^ 

in         1.    The  plan  before  the  ages • 24 

2.    The  mystery  of  Christ-the  Church  necessary  26 

8.    Man's  place  in  creation,  and  in  the  Church  ....  ^^6 

IV  1.     Preparation  of  and  for  the  Son  of  God   ....  27 

2.  Preparation  of  the  Apostles ^ 

3.  Preparation  of  a  Body  for  Christ o" 

v.  1.     Preparation  of  and  for  the  Spirit  81 

2.     Need  of  corporate  action  •••"•/ A 

8.    Unity  of  mankind  through  the  Church  »» 

Lectitbe  II 
ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING 

I  1.    The  Church,  the  fifth  Empire  (Kingdom)    ...  87 
2.    The    relation    of    the    four    to    the    Hebrew 

covenant     ',',.*  V'j 

8.    The  Church,  introduced  and  estabbshed  as  a 
kingdom    

II  1.    Founded  on  the  Jewish  election ** 

2.    Intended  for  growth  and  furnishing  *» 

8.    Also   a   Catholic   foundation    *" 


CONTENTS 


PAOE 

III.  1.     Its  spontaneity   61 

2.  Much  expected   and  much  assured    64 

3.  Its   life  proves  Itself    66 

IV.  The   Church's   endowments :    68 

1.  Continuity     68 

2.  Adaptability     69 

3.  Influence,  based  on  Experience  60 

V.  1.    The  Church's  titles  in  the  Creeds  are  ideals  ...  62 

2.    The  present  meaning  of  each   64 

8.     Her  declaration  as  to  herself  67 


Lecture  III 

CONSTITUTION   AND   ORDERING 

A  kingdom,  body,  building; 

Each  implies  purpose,  ordering,  progress  69 

I.  1.     Kingdom=realm     70 

2.     Ideas  of  Jewish  theocracy  and  Roman  common- 
wealth     73 

8.     Who  rules  and  who  are  ruled  74 

II.  1.  The  Body  not  revealed — not  existent — at  first  76 
2.  Needed  by  Christ  for  His  action,  for  His  life  77 
8.     For  His  progressive  completion  and  His  glory  80 

III.  1.     The  Building,  rooted  and  growing  81 

2.  Material  brought  for  it   82 

3.  Always  under  rule  for  progress    84 

IV.  1.     The  Church  grew  into  organization    86 

2.     Uniformity    of    the    result    87 

8.     Purpose  and  completion  89 

V.  1.     The  necessity  of  the  historic  order   91 

2.     Which     came     by     devolution;     assurance     of 

validity     98 

8,  4.  The    historic    episcopate;    priesthood    minis- 
terial       96 

6,  6.  Validity,  how  defined  and  proven   97 


CONTENTS  ix 

Lectxjbb  IV 
LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP 

PAOE 

1.  The  Church's  life  proves  itself 101 

2.  The  marks  of  that  life   103 

3.  Its    continuance    


106 


II.  1.     The  Church's   growth  in  beauty  and  strength  106 

2.  Her    youthfulness    109 

3.  Alone  with  her  Head;  her  transfiguration  ....   112 

III.  1.     Her  life  sacramental;  that  is,  spiritual  113 

2.  Manifested  as  given  and  as  received   115 

3.  The  place  of  the   sacraments   and   ordmances  117 

IV.  1.     Membership  dependent  on  the  life  of  Christ  . .  119 

2.  Our  relation  to  this  through  the  Church 121 

3.  Who  may  admit  to  membership?   124 

V.  1.     Is  there  implicit  membership,  or  kingdom-mem- 

bership?      127 

2.     Membership   depends   on  relations  and  brmgs 

duties    J28 

8.     Progress   in  membership   within   the   covenant  129 

Lecture  V 

WORK   AND  RELATIONS 

I  1.     The   work   of   the   Church   to   live,   to   be   the 

Body  of  Christ    138 

2.     To  call  the  world  to  the  kingdom  and  to  teach  185 
8.    To  serve  the  world   138 

II.  1.     Disappointment  at  what  the  Church  has  done  189 

2.  Due   in  part  to  wrong  expectations    142 

3.  The  world  is  better  for  the  Church    145 

III.  1.     A   sphere    for   the  world   outside  that  of  the 

Church    l^J 

2.     Ecclesiocracv  intolerable    149 

8.     But  the  Church  may  teach  the  State 150 

IV.  1.     The  revelation  of  truth  to  men;  the  need  of 

study    I'^l 


CONTENTS 


PAOK 

2,    That  of  Duty,  in  law  and  in  practice,  through 

conscience     158 

8.     That  of  Worship,  corresponding  to  the  worship 

above    154 

The  present  urgency  of  the  Church's  work;  the  need 
of  Christ's  Headship   165 

1.  A  great  influence  and  power   156 

2.  Because  of  it,  the  Communion  of  Saints  157 

3.  All  working  towards  an  ideal — which  is  better 

than    reaching    it    168 


Lecture  VI 
THE  FUTURE,  THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM 

I.  1.     The  Church  actually  living,  with  history  and 

promise   of   perpetuity    160 

2.  Imperfection  due  to  finiteness  and  to  weakness  161 

3.  The  right  and  the  wrong  discontent   161 

II.  1.     Our   Anglican  position:  the  quadrilateral    ...   164 

2.  Our  hopes  in  this  dispensation    168 

3.  Our  dangers  and  our  encouragement   169 

III.  1.    Duty  of  separation   from  the  world    174 

2.    The  world  the  field  for  God's  truth  and  grace  176 
8.     Possibility  of  declension;  a  remnant  to  be  saved  177 

IV.  1.    The  growth  of  the  Kingdom   178 

2.     Its  future,  after  this  dispensation 180 

8.    The     nations     governed     by     the     Kingdom; 

restraint     182 

V.  1.     The  Lord  waiting  for  the  Church,  His  Bride  184 
2.     The  Church's   after-duty  to  the  kingdom  and 

the  nations    186 

8.    The  blessedness  of  that  age;  our  part  in  the 

great  unity   187 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


THE 
WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Lecture  I 
PLAN  AND  PREPARATION 

Ephesians  i.  9,  10. 

kotA  rijv  eiSoKlay  airod  ^v  irpoidero  iv  avrip  eh  olKOVoiilav  rov 
ir\r)pd)fMTOs  Tuv  KatpQv. 

"According  to  His  good  pleasure  which  He  purposed  in 
Him,  to  result  in  a  dispensation  marked  by  the  completion  of 
the  appointed  times." 

I  MAY  be  allowed  to  begin  this  course  of  the 
Paddock  Lectures,  the  thirty-fifth  in  appoint- 
ment, though  I  think  it  has  not  so  high  a  num- 
ber in  actual  delivery,  by  paying  a  tribute  of 
respect  to  the  memory  of  the  Founder,  of  the 
man  whose  name  the  foundation  bears,  and  of 
the  first  Lecturer,  whom  the  founder  chose  and 
to  whom  he  suggested  his  topic.  Mr.  Jarvis  was 
a  good  example  of  the  typical  layman,  and  in 
nothing  more  so  than  in  his  desire  to  assist 
in  "the  defence  and  confirmation  of  the  Gospel." 
Bishop  Benjamin  Paddock  was  for  me  in  my 
youth  an  ideal  of  the  graceful  writer  and  faith- 
ful pastor.  Bishop  John  Williams  was  for  all 
of  us  more — if  I  may  so  say — than  an  ideal;  he 
was  worthy  to  teach  because  he  knew,  and  we 
3 


4        THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

learned  from  him  because  from  a  student  he 
had  become  a  scholar;  and  there  was  nothing 
which  he  knew  more  thoroughly  or  of  which  he 
spoke  more  wisely  than  of  the  English  Refor- 
mation. To  follow  such  men  is  an  honor  and  an 
inspiration. 

I  have  set  before  me  as  the  general  subject 
of  this  course  of  lectures  The  Church's  Doctrine 
of  the  Church,  or  The  Church's  Witness  to  Herself. 
I  do  not  forget  that  the  Greatest  of  Teachers 
said  that  if  He  bore  witness  to  Himself  His 
witness  was  not  true;  and  further,  that  a  proof 
that  the  Spirit  Whom  He  would  send  to  His 
disciples  would  have  the  power  to  lead  them  in 
(or  into)  all  the  truth  would  be  that  He  should 
not  speak  from  Himself.  But  in  thus  excluding 
the  origination  of  truth  from  any  divine  teacher — 
and  therefore  implicitly  from  any  human  teacher, 
whether  an  individual  or  an  organism — our  Lord 
did  not  mean  that  no  teacher  was  to  present  his 
credentials  or  to  declare  the  authority  by  which 
he  should  speak.  He  Himself  appealed  to  the 
Father's  authority  as  bringing  a  message  from 
Him,  and  aflBrmed  that  the  cause  for  which  He 
had  come  into  the  world  was  that  He  might 
bear  witness  to  the  truth;  and  He  promised 
that  the  Spirit,  receiving  of  that  which  was 
His,  would  show  it  unto  those  whom  He  should 
call.    In    this   sense   the    Church   of   God,    the 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  6 

Spirit-bearing  body  of  the  Incarnate  Son,  bears 
witness.  And  we  can  ask  of  her — nay,  she  bids 
us  learn  from  her — what  are  the  great  truths 
with  which  she  has  been  intrusted  and  which  it 
is  her  province  to  teach,  what  are  the  lines  of 
duty  which  she  must  enforce  by  precept  and 
example,  and  what  is  her  relation  to  Christ  her 
Head  and  to  the  world  which  is  rightly  His 
Kingdom.  As  an  ambassador,  she  brings  her 
credentials;  they  are  not  the  source  of  her 
authority,  but  they  define  and  prove  her  au- 
thority; and  to  them  she  appeals  in  that  wit- 
ness to  herself  of  which  I  purpose  to  speak, 
telhng  of  her  plan,  her  foundation,  her  consti- 
tution, her  membership,  her  work,  her  destined 
future. 

The  Church's  credentials  are  primarily  in  the 
Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament,  those  now 
ancient  oracles  of  God  and  utterances  of  His 
Spirit,  which,  to  say  the  least,  assure  us  that  in 
the  great  drama  of  man's  world,  while  there  is 
progress  and  development,  there  can  be  no  in- 
troduction of  new  forces  and  principles : 

Primo  ne  medium,  medio  ne  discrepet  imum. 

In  the  Church's  history  we  may  read,  if  we 
are  wise  and  patient,  the  philosophy  of  the 
teaching  of  the  written  word;  and  the  appli- 
cation of  sound  reason  will  not  only  confirm  it, 
but  will  also  give  it  the  perspective  which  helps 


6        THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

the  student  to  distinguish  things  that  differ. 
Yet  that  witness  which  we  are  to  consider  must 
be  sought  not  in  the  sacred  writings  of  the 
earhest  days  alone,  but  in  the  divinely  guided 
life  and  the  no  less  divinely  guided  thought  of 
the  Church.  It  is  no  easy  question,  to  interro- 
gate the  Church  as  to  herself;  it  requires  an 
attuned  ear  to  catch  the  accents  of  her  testi- 
mony and  a  prepared  soul  to  apprehend  its 
meaning.  But  you  will  agree  with  me,  I  am 
sure,  that  it  is  worth  our  while  both  to  ask  our 
questions  and  to  listen  for  a  reply;  and  in  this 
confidence  I  am  asking  you  to  study  with  me 
the  Church's  Witness  to  Herself.  The  topic  is 
indeed  limited,  and  will  keep  us  from  many 
excursions  into  which  our  path  might  easily  be 
turned;  but  it  is  no  narrow  aspect  of  truth  and 
duty  and  hope  on  which  we  can  look,  if  only 
our  steps  are  orderly  guided. 

In  this  first  Lecture,  therefore,  after  briefly 
opening  the  whole  subject,  I  shall  ask  you  to 
study  what  the  Church  through  her  prophets 
and  teachers  tells  us  of  the  divine  plan  and 
purpose  which  in  the  ages  before  the  Incarnation 
were  making  preparation  for  her;  how  in  lines 
direct  and  indirect,  of  general  and  of  special 
training,  man  was  bidden  to  make  ready  and 
God  was  making  ready  a  Body  for  His  Son  when 
He  should  be  sent  into  the  world  to  take  upon 
Him  the  nature  of  man  that   man    might    be 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  7 

perfected.  Next,  we  shall  inquire  into  the  Es- 
tablishment of  the  Church,  its  beginnings  and 
what  followed  immediately  on  its  beginnings, 
and  its  Furnishing,  especially  with  the  gift  of 
the  Spirit  sent  by  the  glorified  Son  of  Man; 
and  we  shall  seek  to  learn  somewhat  of  the 
continuance  of  that  gift,  its  power  of  adaptation, 
and  its  varied  use  in  the  Church's  varying  and 
widening  experience.  It  will  belong  to  us,  in 
the  third  place,  to  study  the  Constitution  and 
Ordering  of  the  Church,  made  known  to  us  as 
the  Body,  the  Temple,  the  City  or  World-Empire, 
of  Christ;  and  to  ask  as  to  the  principles  involved 
in  the  provision  which  He  has  made  for  its  good 
order  and  for  the  continuance  and  permanence  of 
its  regimen  and  government.  We  shall  look  then 
at  the  Church's  Life,  its  nature  and  its  power, 
its  proof  and  its  application,  with  the  means 
by  which  it  communicates  that  Life,  as  coming 
to  it  from  Christ,  to  its  members  in  that  most 
real  of  all  ways  which  we  call  sacramental; 
and  we  must  consider  the  fact  and  the  test  and 
the  proof  of  men's  membership  in  the  body  of 
Christ  by  participation  in  its  life.  Next,  we 
shall  try  to  learn  the  lesson  of  the  Church's 
work  and  of  her  relation  to  the  World  of  men, 
for  whose  sake  the  Son  of  God  was  incarnate 
and  to  whom  He  offers  through  the  Church  the 
benefits  of  His  redemption;  and  we  shall  hope 
for   the   courage   to   look   without   conceit   and 


8        THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

without  despair  at  the  hopes  and  fears  which 
guide  us  and  sober  us  as  we  undertake  our  part 
in  that  work.  And  finally  we  shall  seek  to  gain 
some  idea  of  the  great  and  universal  Kingdom 
of  God — to  which  indeed  our  thoughts  will  have 
often  turned  in  our  progress  thus  far — and  to 
look  into  what  is  revealed  as  to  the  Future  of 
the  Church  in  that  which  remains  of  this  present 
age  and  after  the  consummation  of  this  age,  and 
(if  God  shall  therefor  open  the  eyes  of  our  hearts 
and  our  minds)  to  direct  our  vision  to  the  great 
Consummation  when  Christ — the  Christ  perfected 
in  His  Church — shall  be  all  and  in  all. 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  profound  humility  that 
I  open  before  myself  and  before  you,  my  fathers 
and  brothers  in  learning  and  in  study,  a  scheme, 
which,  because  it  is  so  vast,  must  needs  be  im- 
perfectly handled.  I  shall  hope  rather  to  offer 
suggestions  than  to  instruct,  and  I  shall  leave 
it  to  your  charity  to  fill  out  that  which  can  be 
presented  but  in  outline  and  sometimes  to  bring 
to  your  minds  some  truth  complementary  to 
that  which  I  am  seeking  to  present.  I  shall 
take  my  texts  from  St.  Paul's  wondrous  words 
in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,  words  which  were  the  lofty  but  neces- 
sarily restrained  utterance  of  thoughts  on  which 
his  great  mind  had  dwelt  as,  after  wonderful 
experience,  he  sought  to  tell  the  Church  that 
which   had   been   made   known   to   him   of   the 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  9 

meaning  of  God's  revelation  of  Christ.  They 
are  not  easily  understood  in  their  expression  or 
in  the  truth  which  they  seek  to  express;  but 
they  will  repay  study;  and  to  the  inspiration 
which  gave  utterance  to  them  and  which  they 
awaken  in  us  I  must  trust  in  large  part  to  supply 
my  imperfections  of  utterance  and  of  thought. 
May  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Father  of  glory,  give  unto  us  a  spirit  of  wis- 
dom and  revelation  in  full  knowledge  of  Him, 
that  we  may  know  the  hope  of  His  caUing, 
the  riches  of  His  inheritance,  and  the  exceed- 
ing greatness  of  His  power  to  us-ward  who 
believe.*     Amen. 

Let  us  turn  our  thoughts  then  this  evening 
to  God's  good  pleasure  which  He  purposed  in 
His  Son  that  He  might  bring  about  a  dispen- 
sation which  should  mark  and  belong  to  the 
completion  of  the  appointed  epochs — for  thus  we 
may  venture  to  render,  with  a  kind  of  rough 
accuracy,  the  words  of  the  text. 


The  great  Apostle,  when  he  dictated  these 
words,  did  not  hesitate  to  lay  before  those  who 
should  read  or  hear  them  the  convictions  which 
had  been  borne  in  upon  his  mind  by  long  and 
careful  study.     He  had  known  Christ,  since  the 

•Ephesians  L  17-19. 


10      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

day  when  on  the  Damascus  road  he  had  given 
himself  up  to  be  known  of  Christ;  and  from 
that  time  on  he  had  no  longer  lived  his  own 
life,  but  Christ  had  lived  in  him.  Yet  it  needed 
the  varied  experience  of  years  filled  with  active 
labor  and  discussion  and  persecution  to  show 
him  what  it  meant  to  follow  Christ;  and  then  it 
needed  the  years  when  at  Csesarea  and  at  Rome 
he  was  kept  from  activity  in  service  and  shielded 
from  persecution  to  enable  him  to  learn  how 
it  was  possible,  yea  necessary,  for  Christ  to  be 
all  in  all  to  him;  how  the  God  of  his  fathers 
was  first  really  made  known  to  him  in  the 
glorified  Jesus  when  in  Him  he  found  the  Lord 
of  his  life;  how  all  the  earlier  orderings  of  God's 
gracious  will  had  had  for  their  purpose  to  make 
preparation  for  Him  and  for  a  company  of  men 
who  having  His  life  should  be  His  body. 
The  result  of  all  this  thought — he  called  it  a 
revelation — he  sought  to  express  in  the  former 
part  of  the  writing  which  bears  for  us  the  title 
To  the  Ephesians.  Those  to  whom  it  came  had 
not  had  all  his  experience  and  were  not  en- 
dowed with  all  his  powers  of  insight  and  of 
expression;  nor  can  we,  the  inheritors  of  the 
faith  and  the  learning  of  the  ages,  hope  to  enter 
into  the  fulness  of  his  vision  of  the  plans  and 
purposes  of  the  eternal  Father  for  the  mani- 
festation of  His  Son  or  to  understand  the  full 
meaning  of  the   words  in   which  he  sought  to 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  11 

direct  the  vision  of  his  disciples.  But  as  we 
pass  on  we  are  convinced  that  the  facts  of  the 
revelation,  of  the  revealed  mystery,  are  such 
that  they  prove  a  divine  plan,  a  divine  guid- 
ance, a  divine  issue.  And  as  we  begin  to  trace 
the  preparation  which  in  history  the  God  of 
history  was  making  for  His  Son  and  for  the 
body  of  His  elect,  we  turn  our  words  into  wor- 
ship and  our  thoughts  into  reverence  as  we  are 
bidden  to  remember  that  in  it  all,  or  as  we  are 
almost  forced  to  say  back  of  it  all,  there  was 
and  there  is  the  Father's  good  pleasure  which 
He  purposed  in  His  Son.  The  Son  Himself,  we 
may  say  reverently  and  with  the  apparent 
sanction  of  His  own  words,  must  needs  have 
been  prepared,  sanctified,  consecrated,  that  He 
might  be  sent  into  God's  world,*  whether  to 
bring  its  progressive  virtue  and  holiness  to 
perfection  or  to  call  it  back  from  sin  into  a 
relation  to  God  in  which  it  would  recognize  vir- 
tue and  holiness  as  a  not  impossible  ideal.  And 
certainly,  whether  actual  sin  was  to  enter  into 
a  world  the  nature  of  which  involved  its  pos- 
sibility or  was  to  be  repelled  by  the  unfailing 
choice  and  following  of  righteousness,  man  would 
need  to  be  prepared  for  the  fulfilment  in  him  of 
God's  great  purpose.  Times,  ages,  epochs,  edu- 
cative and  disciplinary  with  possibilities  of  pro- 
gress, must  come  and  pass;  dispensations,  ar- 
•  St  John  X.  86. 


12      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

ranged  plans  each  with  its  methods  and  its 
adaptations,  must  follow  one  another;  God,  deal- 
ing with  man  whom  He  had  made  in  His  own 
image  that  man  might  grow  into  His  likeness, 
must  be  Himself  under  the  "  divine  necessity  " 
of  teaching  man  rightly  to  value  that  image  and 
desire  that  likeness,  long  though  the  process  of 
learning  and  of  teaching  must  be.  And  when 
the  times  should  be  completed,  the  varied  epochs 
should  have  passed,  and  the  fulfilment  should 
be  awaited,  a  new  dispensation,  plan,  ordering 
of  events  for  God  and  for  men,  was  to  be  brought 
in.  That  the  times  had  been  fulfilled  Christ 
proclaimed  when  He  began  His  ministry;*  that 
the  times  had  been  fulfilled  was  believed  by  the 
pious  souls  who  were  as  with  prophetic  vision 
waiting  then  for  the  redemption  and  visitation  of 
God's  people;  that  the  times  had  been  fulfilled 
the  Apostle's  mind  and  his  soul  were  convinced 
when  he  saw  what  the  Father  had  purposed  in 
the  Son  and  what  the  Son  was  accomphshing  for 
the  Father,  the  beginning  and  the  promise  and, 
in  sure  anticipation,  the  perfection  of  the 
Church. 

But  we  must  recall  ourselves  from  the  present 
thought  of  these  lofty  truths  to  ask  what  we 
learn,  in  Scripture  or  elsewhere,  as  to  the  mani- 
festation of  God's  plan  in  the  working  of  the 
earlier  dispensations. 

•  St.  Mark  L  15. 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  13 

1.  These  dispensations,  the  Hmits  of  which  are 
fairly  defined  for  us  in  the  Old  Testament,  are 
marked  by  covenants,  and  may  almost  be  them- 
selves called  covenants.  They  disclose  methods 
of  God's  deahngs  with  mankind  and  with  men, 
each  starting  with  a  relationship  recognized  or 
brought  into  existence,  each  implying  the  obli- 
gations of  such  relationship,  and  each  bringing 
a  moral  power  to  bear  for  the  quickening  con- 
tinuance of  the  relationship.  We  can  know 
Kttle  of  man's  state  before  the  fall,  when  though 
necessarily  imperfect  he  remained  sinless,  except 
by  denying  the  faults  and  evil  tendencies  which 
we  must  attribute  to  the  fall;  but  we  may  feel 
sure  that  God's  dealings  with  man  in  the  time 
of  his  innocency  must  have  had  to  do  with  wor- 
ship and  truth  and  duty.  Standing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  in  true  humility  indeed  but  without 
the  sense  of  shame,  man  must  have  bowed  in 
homage  with  the  recognition  of  God's  greatness 
and  of  his  own  dependence  on  Him;  making 
Himself  known  to  man,  God  must  have  revealed 
to  him  somewhat  of  the  great  truths  which 
underlay  the  blessed  relations  in  which  they 
stood,  the  one  to  the  other;  thus  acknowledging 
and  recognizing  God,  man  could  not  fail  to  learn 
and  to  confess  the  duty  of  being  and  of  growing 
to  be  like  God.  That  first  covenant,  to  which 
I  think  we  may  say  that  all  the  wondrous  de- 
velopment led  which  had  its  issue  in  man  at 


14      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

his  beginning — that  first  covenant  was  marked 
by  man's  worship  of  God,  God's  impartation  of 
truth  to  man,  the  recognition  of  the  duty  of 
man  to  God  and  (may  it  not  be  reverently 
added?)  the  duty  of  God  to  man. 

2.  But  when  actual  sin,  the  choice  of  moral 
evil,  and  with  it  the  inclination  to  sin,  entered 
into  the  world  of  man,  the  covenant  became 
a  covenant  of  mercy,  and  the  prime  purpose  of 
the  dispensation  was  restoration.  We  do  not 
dare  to  say  that  sin  and  the  need  of  restora- 
tion was  a  part  of  God's  plan;  we  do  know 
that  it  was  His  good  purpose  that  man  having 
sinned  should  not  be  left  to  himself;  we  may 
venture  to  affirm,  with  some  of  the  most  sober 
theologians,  that  in  creation  there  was  the  prom- 
ise of  redemption  if  (or  perhaps  when)  redemption 
should  be  necessary.  At  any  rate,  into  this 
plan  or  covenant  of  restoration,  of  setting  right, 
of  justification,  there  entered — perhaps  I  had 
better  said,  in  this  covenant  there  were  con- 
tinued— duty  and  truth  and  worship.  I  have 
changed  the  order,  for  it  would  seem  that  the 
obligation  of  duty  was  now  felt  as  foremost  and 
most  imperative;  but  there  followed  upon  it  the 
attractive  revelation  of  truth,  attractive  even 
when  its  aspect  is  stern  and  its  lessons  are  hard 
in  their  application,  and  the  call  to  worship, 
itself  also   attractive  even   when   worship    must 


'  PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  15 

begin  with  repentance  and  be  based  upon  it. 
The  principles  of  the  covenant  remained:  God 
would  have  man  recognize  Him,  listen  to  Him, 
obey  Him;  and  in  the  acknowledgment  of  God's 
restoring  mercy,  His  pity  and  His  patience,  man 
was  bidden  to  enter  into  the  covenant  which  led 
to  redemption. 

3.  Thus  all  the  world  of  man  had  a  place  in 
this  covenant;  it  was  in  fact  as  in  intention  a 
universal  dispensation.  But  within  it — and  we 
can  see  in  part  how  this  furthered  the  divine 
plan  for  all — God  made  an  election.  He  chose 
first  a  man,  head  of  the  most  important  family 
in  the  world  of  that  time,  the  great  monotheist, 
whose  faith,  that  is  to  say  recognition  and  prac- 
tical acknowledgment  of  God,  has  been  a  pattern 
and  an  inspiration  for  forty  centuries  of  be- 
lieving men;  then  a  family  among  that  man's 
descendants;  then  a  nation  which  sprang  from 
that  family;  and  with  the  man,  the  family, 
the  nation.  He  made  a  covenant  of  election. 
The  primarily  evident  purpose  of  this  election 
was  privilege,  but  privilege  as  involving  responsi- 
bility, and  that  in  the  lines  of  which  we  have 
been  speaking:  the  elect  were  given  a  more 
ready  access  to  God  in  worship,  a  clearer  reve- 
lation of  Him  in  the  knowledge  of  truth,  a 
more  distinct  instruction  in  duty,  than  had  been 
granted   to   mankind   as   a   whole.     We   do   not 


16      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

need  to  prove  that  this  was  possible  or  that, 
speaking  generally,  it  distinguished  the  election 
from  those  who  remained  under  the  universal 
covenant.  Of  course,  it  would  be  easy  to  point 
out  examples  of  men  who  were  not  included  in 
the  Hebrew  or  Jewish  election  who  yet  had 
wonderfully  clear  visions  of  duty  and  truth  and 
whose  lives  were  guided  by  a  consciousness  of 
God  and  of  His  presence  with  them;  and  the 
writings  of  their  own  prophets  and  historians 
abound  in  confessions  of  the  failure  of  men 
within  the  election  to  learn  and  to  be  and  to 
do  that  to  which  they  were  called  and  to  which 
they  were  pledged.  Still,  the  greater  privilege 
and  the  greater  responsibility  were  within  the 
congregation  or  body  of  beheving  men  who 
were  chosen  by  God  out  of  mankind;  and  this 
meant  that  they  were  put  under  a  special  training 
— we  may  call  it  a  discipline  or  a  dispensation — 
as  the  son  of  the  family  is  trained  more  strictly, 
because  more  lovingly,  than  the  attendants  and 
the  slaves  of  the  household.  The  universal 
covenant  was  not  abrogated;  the  law  irapua^XOtv, 
to  use  St.  Paul's  word;  *  it  came  in  by  way  of 
parenthesis,  not  interfering  with  the  revelation 
in  God's  great  utterance  whereby  He  was  teach- 
ing and  guiding  all  mankind,  but  putting  into 
it,  for  those  who  received  this,  another  aspect 
of  revelation,  another  note  accordant  with  that 
•  Romans  v.  20. 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  17 

which  had  been  sounded  with  an  added  har- 
mony and  a  new  power.  For  the  chosen  family 
and  nation,  the  lessons  of  the  covenant  were  held 
in  suspense  till  a  special  revelation  could  be 
made;  the  purpose  being  that  the  former  reve- 
lation should  in  this  way  gain  in  significance 
and  in  power,  till  in  an  amplified  form  it  might 
again  be  offered  to  all  mankind.  I  do  not  for- 
get that  the  great  Apostle,  when  he  introduces 
this  figure  of  the  Law  as  a  parenthesis,  gives 
as  its  purpose  "that  the  transgression  might 
abound";  but  the  sternness  of  the  term  really 
emphasizes  both  the  need  and  the  eflBcacy  of 
the  act;  for  the  law  made  it  impossible  for 
God's  people  to  disobey  Him  without  knowing 
that  they  were  sinning;  impossible,  that  is  to 
say,  to  weaken  and  defile  their  characters  with- 
out at  least  a  warning  that  they  were  incurring 
defilement  and  losing  strength.  It  is  not  a 
lesson  which  at  first  commends  itself  even  to  us; 
but  a  little  thought  as  to  what  our  moral  condi- 
tion is  when  we  find  ourselves  becoming  habitual 
sinners,  even  in  some  one  line  of  thought  or 
act,  without  knowing  that  the  thought  or  act 
is  sinful — this,  I  say,  fully  justifies  the  inter- 
position of  a  special  dispensation  to  show  that 
sin  is  transgression  and  thus  to  call  man  back 
from  it.  Put  St.  Paul's  words  into  the  positive 
form — for  sin  and  transgression  are  negations, 
real  and  mighty  indeed,  but  negations — and  he 


18      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

tells  us  that  the  purpose  of  the  election,  the 
special  covenant,  was  that  righteousness  might 
utter  its  great  imperative  and  insist  on  being 
heard;  for  the  law  was  the  teacher  of  right- 
eousness. 

But  the  purpose  of  the  law  as  a  parenthesis 
was  not  only  or  even  chiefly  to  strengthen  and 
benefit  those  to  whom  it  was  given.  The  elec- 
tion was  not  that  the  elect  should  be  better  or 
wiser  or  holier  than  others;  if  this  had  been  its 
purpose,  we  should  almost  be  forced  to  confess 
it  a  failure.  No;  they  were  given  privileges 
and  laden  with  responsibihties,  that  others  might 
be  better  for  their  opportunities  and  for  the 
use  which  they  made  of  them.  As  the  few  great 
poets  and  artists  of  the  world  have  been  given 
powers  of  discernment  and  expression,  not  to 
gratify  themselves,  but  to  quicken  the  mental 
and  spiritual  powers  of  the  multitude;  as  the 
few  great  philosophers  have  been  granted  visions 
of  truth,  not  that  they  may  find  in  them  their 
own  happiness,  but  that  they  may  tell  of  the 
harmony  and  beauty  which  they  know  and 
persuade  us  of  its  reality  and  its  power;  as  to 
scholars  in  varied  paths  of  knowledge  there 
come  convictions  of  wisdom,  which  mean  nothing 
unless  the  scholars  become  teachers  and  lead 
others  along  the  path  of  understanding;  so  God 
gives  to  His  elect  lessons  of  duty,  revelations  of 
truth,  calls  to  worship,  that  by  reason  of  them 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  19 

all  men  to  whom  His  covenant  extends  may  be 
better,  wiser,  more  holy.  And  the  Church  is 
the  heir  of  the  election  that  she  may  become 
the  heir  of  the  covenant.  A  preparation  was 
making  for  her  in  the  Jewish  Church  or  con- 
gregation; but  when  this  parenthetical  prepara- 
tion came  to  an  end,  she  could  take  up  the  sentence 
of  the  universal  revelation  and  carry  on  the 
universal  covenant.  To  anticipate  a  phrase  which 
must  presently  be  used  and  enlarged  upon,  the 
Christian  Body  is  the  Church  of  Christ,  destined 
to  be  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  extension  the 
Kingdom  is  the  greater;  but,  for  this  dispensa- 
tion at  least,  the  Church  has  the  greater  intension. 

II 

In  some  such  way  as  this  the  Christian  Church 
claims,  not  only  to  have  been  historically  pre- 
pared for,  but  to  have  had  a  preliminary  history 
reaching  back  to  the  time  of  man's  creation. 
Its  existence  is  the  fulfilment  of  a  purpose,  and 
of  a  purpose  of  the  ages  which  include  and  (in 
a  sense)  precede  time.  That  purpose  was  the 
good  pleasure  of  the  Father  which  He  purposed 
in  His  Son,  to  result  in  a  dispensation  that 
should  be  marked  by  the  completion  and  ful- 
filment of  the  periods  and  epochs  which  should 
lead  up  to  it. 

1.  It  was,  therefore,  a  purpose  not  dependent 
upon  sin  or  upon  the  need  of  redemption  from 


20      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

sin.  It  involved  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son, 
that  He  should  take  upon  Him  the  nature  of 
man,  not  of  necessity  to  redeem  him,  but  of 
necessity  to  bring  him  to  perfection.  It  involved 
that  stupendous  act,  which  yet  was  the  most 
natural  of  all  acts,  by  which  God  and  man  were 
brought  together  "in  one  Person  never  to  be 
divided."  On  the  divine  side,  if  one  may  so 
say,  there  was  the  Son  by  timeless  generation 
begotten  of  the  Father,  looking  indeed  towards 
Him  the  Source  of  His  Deity,  but  able  also  to 
reach  to  that  creation  to  which  the  Father  was 
to  give  through  Him  a  life  derived  from  His; 
and  there  was  also  at  his  very  first  beginning 
man,  made  in  God's  image  with  the  possibiHty 
of  attaining  to  His  likeness,  able  to  look  up  to 
Him,  nay  able — of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
because  we  know  that  it  has  taken  place — able 
to  receive  the  divine  and  to  prepare  to  be  taken 
into  the  divine.  The  truth  of  the  Father's  two 
impartations  of  life,  the  one  to  His  Son,  the 
other  to  His  creation,  distinct  yet  complementary, 
leads  to  the  truth  of  the  Incarnation;  and  on 
the  fact  of  the  Incarnation  depend  the  purpose, 
the  reason,  the  fact  of  the  Church.  Even  apart 
from  sin,  man  would  need  to  be  prepared  by 
that  normal  training  which  we  call  development 
for  the  entrance  of  his  nature  into  the  Person 
of  the  Son  of  God;  even  apart  from  sin  there 
would   needs   be   the   contribution  of  one  fixed 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  21 

epoch  after  another  till  all  their  purposes  were 
fulfilled  and  the  novus  ordo  saeclorum  should  be 
ushered  in;  even  apart  from  sin  the  Incarnation 
must  await  its  time,  and  the  Church,  its  ex- 
pression, must  tarry  till  the  period  of  the  order 
of  its  dispensation  had  come.  Thus  much  at 
least,  and  doubtless  more  into  which  we  can 
but  dimly  look,  is  taught  us  by  St.  Paul's  words 
which  he  learned  by  revelation:  Creation  was 
with  the  purpose  of  incarnation,  Incarnation  was 
with  the  purpose  of  making  mankind  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  Spirit,  the  Church  of  the  Son,  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Father. 

2.  To  this  we  must  certainly  hold,  and  the 
thought  of  this  must  He  back  of  all  that  we  shall 
hereafter  think  or  confess  of  the  Church's  place 
in  God's  great  world.  But,  of  God's  patient 
love  for  man  and  to  His  glory,  the  great  plan 
was  not  turned  aside — we  cannot  say  that  it 
was  not  hindered — by  man's  sin.  Nay  rather, 
the  very  means  by  which  sinless  man  was  to 
be  brought  to  perfection  were  made  to  serve  for 
man's  reclamation  and  restoration.  The  Son  of 
God,  not  changed — for  that  were  impossible — 
in  Himself  or  in  that  which  He  could  offer  to 
man;  man,  changed  indeed,  but  without  utter 
loss  of  the  divine  image,  able  to  recognize  God's 
revelation  in  the  Son,  to  apprehend  it,  and  to 
desire  it;    God  still  calhng  to  man  as  His  crea- 


22      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

tion  and  His  child,  and  man  still  able  to  hear 
His  voice  and  never  quite  unwilling  to  be  guided 
by  it;  God  demanding  His  own — for  this  is  the 
underlying  thought  of  the  Hebrew  word  which 
deceives  us  when  from  the  Greek  or  the  Latin 
we  translate  it  '  redeem ' — God  claiming  His  own 
and  offering  defence  and  strength,  and  man 
accepting  deliverance  and  in  measure  turning  it 
into  victory;  this  it  is  which  marks  that  changed 
process  from  a  normal  to  an  abnormal  revelation 
which  now  distinguishes  the  record  of  human 
history  in  its  Godward  relations.  The  Christian 
Church  bids  us  thus  to  read  the  history  of  the 
ages  which  passed  before  her  organization  as 
the  Christian  Church,  and  to  see  how  from  the 
lawgivers,  the  prophets,  and  the  priests  of  the 
earlier  covenant  and  of  the  earlier  election  there 
came  ever  more  strict  and  helpful  lessons  of  duty, 
more  clear  revelations  of  truth,  the  opportunity 
of  nearer  approach  to  God  in  prayer  and  in 
worship.  Thus  for  sinful  man  the  way  was  made 
ready  against  the  time  of  the  dispensation  in 
in  which  we  now  live. 

3.  And  we  are  bold  to  affirm  that  those  cen- 
turies of  waiting  and  of  preparation  were  cen- 
turies of  progress.  We  read  the  records  of  the 
life  of  God's  people  in  the  Old  Testament,  we 
search  the  annals  of  the  nations  on  the  pages 
of   the   world's   history,   and    we   seem    to   find 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  23 

failure  written  at  the  end  of  almost  every  chapter 
and  to  read  of  ruin  as  the  result  of  almost  every- 
thing that  man,  no  matter  what  his  impulse 
and  his  guidance,  has  undertaken.  But,  strange 
as  to  our  unaided  gaze  it  seems,  the  history  of 
ages  and  of  generations  did  make  ready  the 
way  for  the  Son  of  God.  The  fulness,  the  com- 
pletion, of  the  epochs,  did  come;  and  the  Son 
of  God  did  by  Incarnation  come  into  the  world 
which  He  had  made  and  which  He  was  waiting 
to  redeem  and  to  lead  on  to  its  perfection.  "  A 
people  was  prepared  for  the  Lord";  at  least 
sufficiently  prepared  to  receive  the  germ  of  newly 
revealed  truth  and  newly  communicated  life. 
Had  all  God's  truth  and  love.  His  manifested 
justice  and  mercy.  His  urgent  patience  and 
patient  waiting,  but  led  to  the  expectant  faith 
of  the  few  simple-hearted  men  and  women  who 
believed  that  the  time  was  well-nigh  fulfilled  and 
looked  for  redemption  in  Israel  as  close  at  hand.f^* 
and  was  this  the  result,  the  adequate  result,  of 
all  past  history?  The  restoration  of  prophecy, 
which  went  not  out  as  of  old  to  a  listen- 
ing nation,  but  was  heard  by  a  few  chosen 
ones  in  the  house  of  a  priest  at  the  time  of  the 
circumcision  of  his  son  f — was  this  the  pro- 
clamation of  a  new  age?  The  outburst  of  con- 
fident hope  from  the  pen  of  the  most  rehgious 
of  ethnic  poets  J — was  this  the  response  of  the 

•  Luke  ii.  25,  88.  f  Luke  i.  67.  jVirgU,  Eclogue  iv. 


24      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

nations  to  the  revelation  of  Israel's  King?  Surely, 
God  seeth  not  as  man  seeth;  it  was  enough, 
after  so  long  a  time,  that  so  many  were  ready; 
their  faith  and  hope  were  mighty  enough  to 
introduce  the  great  change  in  the  world;  the 
new  dispensation  was  marked  by  the  completion 
of  the  old;  they  who  knew  and  beheld  and  wor- 
shipped and  obeyed — and  waited — these  made 
it  possible  for  the  nation  and  the  world  to  hear 
the  proclamation  which  told  of  a  great  fulfil- 
ment and  a  great  beginning. 

Ill 

1.  Thus  in  the  early  ages  we  find  the  pre- 
paration for  the  Church.  It  was  directly  by  way 
of  election,  ecclesiastical  election,  if  one  may 
so  distinguish  it  from  the  individual  predestina- 
tion with  which  we  are  apt  to  confuse  it;  and 
yet  an  election  which  was  within  a  wide  covenant, 
and  which  indeed  belonged  to  that  covenant. 
The  nation  of  the  tabernacle,  the  temple,  the 
synagogue,  "  to  which  belonged  the  adoption  and 
the  glory  and  the  covenants  and  the  giving  of 
a  law  and  the  divine  worship  and  the  promises 
and  whose  were  the  fathers"  was  it  "from 
which  according  to  the  flesh  came  the  Christ," 
even  the  Christ  Who  is  over  all.*  In  it  all 
were  called,  and  in  it  were  found  those  who  were 
chosen  and  faithful.  The  preparation  was  also 
*  Romans  ix.  4,  5. 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  26 

in  a  less  direct  way — so  at  least  it  seemed — among 
the  nations  in  whom  God  never  left  Himself 
without  the  witness  of  providence,  of  history, 
of  law,  of  moral  and  spiritual  enlightenment,  of 
faith  and  hope,  of  gifts  of  grace.  Here  too  were 
those  who  were  waiting  for  the  light,  in  their 
way  called  and  chosen  and  faithful;  and  into 
their  heritage,  as  well  as  into  that  of  the  nation, 
the  Church  was  to  enter. 

2.  For,  as  St.  Paul  tells  us  in  the  Epistle 
some  of  the  opening  words  of  which  have  been 
directing  our  thoughts,  the  Mystery  of  Christ, 
the  great  truth  revealed  in  Him  and  from  Him, 
the  great  secret  always  true  yet  not  made  clearly 
known  until  He  had  come,  was  that  the  nations 
(toi  eOvt])  should  have  the  same  inheritance,  be 
members  of  the  same  body,  and  partake  of  the 
same  promise  as  those  who  called  themselves 
and  were  the  people  (o  \a6<;).  The  Church 
was  necessary,  that  is,  for  the  completion  of 
the  history  of  all  mankind;  and  if  the  career 
of  one  people  had  been  more  evidently  directed 
than  that  of  other  nations,  it  was  that  those 
others  might,  when  the  time  was  fulfilled,  re- 
ceive the  benefits  and  blessings  which  had  been 
held  in  store  for  them.  The  Church  was  ne- 
cessary in  itself,  that  the  Son  of  God  might  have 
as  His  body  an  organization  of  men  beheving 
in  Him;   it  was  necessary  in  the  history  of  man 


26      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

imperfect,  that  the  members  of  that  body  might 
find  in  it  the  perfecting  power  and  grace  of 
Him  who  was  its  Head;  it  was  necessary  in 
the  history  of  man  weakened  by  sin,  that  man 
brought  into  that  body  might  receive  the  germ 
of  a  cleansing  and  strengthening  Kfe,  to  be 
nourished  in  him  unto  the  eternal  Hfe  of  the 
Incarnate  Son.  The  Church,  then,  in  the  great 
reahty  of  the  divine  plan  and  of  the  thought 
of  God  is  not  only,  as  we  have  all  been  taught, 
before  the  Churches;  it  is  before  the  individual 
and  the  individuals;  they  are  for  it  and  it  is 
not  for  them,  as  really  as  they  are  for  Christ 
and  not  Christ  for  them.  The  mystery  is  the 
fact;  the  truth  last  revealed  and  still  in  revela- 
tion is  the  eternal  verity,  the  cause  and  the 
end  of  all  other  revelation  in  the  great  scheme 
of  the  universe. 

3.  For  as  man  stands  at  the  head  of  creation 
in  God's  great  order  and  oeconomy  (dispensa- 
tion) and  is  not  really  himself  until  he  is  actually 
as  well  as  virtually  creation's  head,  so  the  Church 
is  the  true  and  destined  head  and  summation 
of  man,  and  Christ  is  the  only  Head  of  the 
Church;  "and  the  Head  of  Christ  is  God." 
"From  Him  and  by  means  of  Him  and  with 
reference  to  Him  are  all  things  " — "  is  the  uni- 
verse." *     The  Incarnate  Son  was  not  complete 

*  Romans  xL  86. 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  27 

as  the  Incarnate  until  He  entered  into  the  glory 
of  the  Father;  but  He  still  waits  till  He  with 
His  body  subject  Himself  unto  the  Father  who 
shall  have  subjected  all  things  unto  Him;  the 
Church  can  attain  her  perfection  only  in  the 
life  of  her  Head;  mankind  can  be  made  perfect 
only  by  entering  into — nay,  rather,  by  becoming 
— the  Church;  no  man  is  or  can  be  brought 
to  his  possible  and  destined  perfection  save  as 
a  member  of  the  body  of  Christ.  The  Incarnate 
Son  in  His  present  glory  is  the  One  Obedient, 
the  One  Revealer,  the  One  Worshipper;  in  His 
life  we  render  acceptable  service,  in  His  wisdom 
we  learn  lessons  of  truth,  in  His  ever  offered 
sacrifice  we  enter  into  the  presence  of  the  Father. 
And  this  is  possible  for  us,  because  we  are  mem- 
bers of  His  body  and  therefore  in  Him. 

TV 

1.  We  cannot  lay  too  great  emphasis  on  the 
importance,  God-ward  and  man-ward,  of  the 
preparation  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God 
by  Incarnation  into  the  world  of  man  and  for 
the  foundation  of  His  Church.  Even  after  He 
had  come.  He  made  preparation  for  the  Church. 
It  was  not  enough  that  He  hved  a  blameless 
life  as  boy  and  youth  and  young  man;  it  was 
not  enough  that  He  spoke  words  of  truth  and 
did  works  of  healing  and  showed  his  power  over 
the  world  of   nature  and  of    man;    it  was  not 


28      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

enough  that  multitudes  came  to  Him  to  hear 
and  to  be  healed  and  to  wonder  whether  perhaps 
He  were  the  promised  Messiah.  He  must  have 
a  body  of  men  bound  to  Him  by  personal  alle- 
giance, learning  to  vmderstand  Him,  and  pre- 
paring to  enter  into  His  very  life.  We  call  the 
years  of  His  ministry  His  public  life;  and  as 
compared  with  the  years  of  His  dwelhng  in 
Nazareth,  it  was  a  life  among  men  and  in  the 
sight  of  men.  But  its  most  significant  mark  is 
that  it  was  for  Him  and  for  a  little  band  of 
chosen  followers  a  time  of  momentous  prepara- 
tion. He  was  preparing  Himself  for  all  that  was 
involved  in  becoming  and  proving  Himself  the 
sinless  Head  of  sinful  humanity,  for  the  Humilia- 
tion and  the  Passion  and  the  Death,  the  Resurrec- 
tion and  the  Ascension,  the  Expecting  and  the 
Return;  He  was  preparing  Himself  to  be  the 
Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church.  It  mattered 
little  what  the  crowd  said  of  Him,  that  He  was 
Elijah  or  Jeremiah  or  John  Baptist  come  to 
life  again;  but  when  the  Twelve  confessed  Him 
as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  then, 
as  with  the  expression  of  a  great  hope  fulfilled. 
He  could  declare  that  He  was  about  to  build 
on  the  rock  of  faith  a  Church  for  Himself  and 
that  that  Church — that  elected  body — should 
have  such  vigor  that  the  citadel  of  death  should 
fall  before  it.  The  Transfiguration  followed  soon 
after  Peter's  confession  and  the  Lord's  acknow- 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  29 

ledgment  and  promise;  then  the  humanity  of 
Christ  was  shown  to  have  reached,  as  He  was  a 
man,  its  perfection,  and  His  true  home  was  made 
known  as  no  longer  on  earth  but  with  God.  But 
He  veiled  His  glory  and  came  back  to  the  life 
which  had  to  do  with  sorrow  and  conflict  and 
death,  because  though  He  was  prepared  for 
personal  salvation  He  was  not  yet  prepared  to 
be  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  the  Head  of  the 
Church  of  the  redeemed.  For  this,  the  only 
way  was  through  death  and  resurrection;  His 
ascension  must  be  from  Olivet  and  not  from 
Tabor  or  Hermon. 

2.  The  Apostles  also  needed  to  be  prepared, 
and  with  them  that  inner  body  of  disciples 
who  "companied  with  them  all  the  time  that 
the  Lord  went  in  and  out  among  them."  They 
needed  to  continue  with  Him  in  His  tempta- 
tions; to  witness  His  dedication  of  Himself  to 
death  and  hear  the  promise  of  His  return;  to 
bear  the  strain — under  which  indeed  most  of 
them  fell  for  the  moment — of  His  defeat;  to  know, 
as  before  they  could  not  know,  the  truth  of 
His  victory  as  shown  in  His  new  life;  and  then 
to  hsten  to  Him  as,  in  words  which  they  could 
never  forget,  during  the  great  Forty  Days  He 
spoke  of  the  things  that  had  to  do  with  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  for  service  in  which  He  com- 
missioned and  instructed  them.    It  is  well  worth 


80      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

our  while  to  study  the  results  of  this  prepara- 
tion, not  only  in  the  characters  of  the  leaders 
of  the  early  Church,  and  in  their  recorded  words 
as  they  began  to  preach  the  Gospel,  but  also 
in  the  successive  steps  in  which  they  began  the 
work  and  effected  the  organization  and  directed 
the  worship  of  the  Church;  but  on  this  study 
we  cannot  enter  now.  Suffice  it  to  note,  that 
having  received  the  promised  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
they  spoke  and  acted  with  all  confidence,  as 
men  under  authority  and  entrusted  with  au- 
thority. "  They  dreamed  not  of  a  transitory 
house,  who  thus  did  build." 

3.  Our  Lord,  then,  while  He  was  with  His 
disciples  on  earth  before  and  after  His  resur- 
rection, was  not  merely  instructing  those  whom 
He  found  most  willing  to  hear,  or  training  a 
chosen  few  that  they  might  presently  be  His 
representatives  to  witness  to  Him  and  transmit 
His  message  to  others.  He  was  preparing  for 
Himself  a  Body,  into  which  He  might  infuse 
His  own  life  after  that  life  had  been  glorified 
and  made  transmissible,  even  as — so  the  early 
writers  read  the  parable — in  the  first  creation 
God  formed  man  from  that  which  He  had  al- 
ready made  and  then  breathed  into  him  the 
breath,  the  spirit,  of  life.  Of  this  gift  of  the 
Spirit  we  must  speak  presently.  But  before 
passing  on  let  us  note  that  the  purpose  of  the 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  31 

living  body  of  the  first  man  and  that  of  the 
second  Adam  was  that  each  in  his  way  might 
act  in  and  upon  the  world.  The  breath  of  life 
was  given  to  the  natural  (the  psychical)  man 
that  he  might  by  his  labor  bring  the  material 
world  into  subjection  and  exliibit  at  once  its 
usefulness  and  its  beauty.  The  spiritual  Man 
received  the  Divine  Spirit  for  His  body  of  ran- 
somed and  believing  men,  that  it  might  work 
upon  the  world  of  human  souls  and  bring  them 
into  the  aptitude  and  readiness  of  service;  that 
mankind  in  Christ  and  through  His  Spirit  might 
learn  and  exercise  its  power  of  allegiance  and 
obedience,  and  might  thus  attain  to  that  ripeness 
and  beauty  of  character  which  can  come  to  it 
from  no  other  source.  The  Spirit  was  given  to 
the  Church  that  the  world  might  receive  from 
the  Church  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 


1.  It  remains  that  we  note  in  this  lecture  the 
preparation  for  the  Church  which  is  especially 
due  to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  Perhaps  we  may 
even  venture  to  speak  of  the  preparation  of  the 
Third  Person  of  the  blessed  Trinity  for  His 
work  in  the  accomplishment  of  God's  great  pur- 
pose, as  we  have  learned  that  the  Word,  the 
Second  Person  in  the  Godhead,  was  prepared  for 
His  Incarnation  and  His  mediatorial  work.     For 


32      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

certainly  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  present  dis- 
pensation (oeconomy)  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Father 
as  He  has  been  given,  and  has  given  Himself, 
to  the  Incarnate  Son.  The  Father  has  sent 
Him  indeed,  but  has  sent  Him  in  the  Son's  name; 
and  in  the  Church  He  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus.  The  breath  of  life  was 
such  as  the  body  could  receive;  it  was  adapted 
to  the  body,  even  as  the  structure  of  the  body 
was  such  that  it  could  be  animated  by  nought 
else  than  the  eternal  Spirit.  And  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  command  to  wait  for  the  promise 
of  the  Father,  and  in  the  ten  daj^s'  delay,  and 
in  the  record  that  the  Spirit  did  come  when  the 
day  of  Pentecost  was  approaching  a  fulfilment,* 
that  shows  us  a  great  act  of  which  some  part 
was  wrought  in  the  silence  of  God. 

2.  And  the  need  that  God's  time  should  be 
awaited,  that  the  Apostles  and  their  companions, 
full  though  they  were  of  zeal,  should  find  that 
the  day  had  not  quite  come  when  they  could 
testify  of  their  living  Master,  emphasizes  the 
truth  that  their  work  and  their  service  was  to 
be  corporate.  Their  duty  could  not  be  satisfied 
b  individual  allegiance,  strong  though  their 
faith  was  and  earnest  their  devotion.  The 
strengthening  and  directing  grace  of  which  they 
felt  the  need  could  not  be  given  to  any  soul 

•  Acts  ii.  1 :  ^1*  r(f  (rvyK\rjpovff0ai. 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  33 

which  kept  itself  apart  from  the  others.  The 
gift  must  be  corporate,  all  must  be  "with  one 
accord  in  one  place";  the  members  of  the  one 
body  could  alone  receive  the  gift  which  was  sent 
to  the  one  body;  the  obedience  must  be  con- 
current, the  teaching  identical,  the  worship  with 
one  mind  and  one  voice.  Pentecost  was  the 
birth-day— rather,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  the 
life-day— of  the  Christian  Church,  never  an  in- 
fant, but  endowed  with  the  attractive  vigor  of 
eternal  youth ;  upon  a  body  its  gifts  were  poured 
out,  and  upon  a  body  were  laid  its  responsi- 
bilities. The  world,  in  spite  of  its  age-long 
divisions,  had  a  sort  of  unity,  both  external  and 
internal;  the  Church  had,  and  was  ever  to  have, 
an  essential  unity,  for  which  she  was  prepared 
and  which  was  confirmed  to  her  by  the  one 
Spirit. 

3.  And  by  virtue  of  this  preparation  and  this 
action  the  unity  of  mankind  is  to  be  sought  and 
awaited  in  the  Church  of  God.  For  the  world 
was  made  for  the  Church,  and  the  Church  is 
one  because  God  is  one.  The  dreams  of  one 
Empire  have  inspired  men  of  the  world,  in  older 
dispensations  and  in  our  own,  to  force  the  nations 
into  a  semblance  of  unity,  which  has  always 
been  far  from  "the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  the  peace";  and  such  empire  neither 
God  nor  man  nor  history  can  tolerate.    But  the 


34   THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Church,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the 
Father,  is  the  one  Body  of  His  incarnate  Son, 
the  Temple  of  His  one  Spirit;  and  for  this  reason 
she  is  the  great  unifying  power  of  mankind; 
for  this  she  has  been  prepared;  and,  please  God, 
the  preparation  shall  have  its  full  result,  "even 
before  the  sons  of  men." 

Thus  the  study  of  God's  plan  of  the  Church 
and  His  preparation  for  it  in  history  and  in 
grace  has  led  us  into  a  wide  range  of  thought. 
We  have  seen  its  connection  with  the  universal 
covenant  of  old,  and  with  the  election  which 
came  in  and  partly  modified  it;  we  have  traced  in 
outline  the  history  which  led  up  to  it;  we  have 
seen  that  in  it  is  the  great  revelation  of  Christ 
for  mankind;  we  have  marked  how  the  Lord's 
ministry,  not  only  before  but  also  after  His 
resurrection,  had  to  do  with  the  Church  which 
He  had  gathered  in  germ;  and  we  have  noted 
its  relation  to  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Spirit's 
relation  to  it.  And  thus  we  have  done  some- 
thing to  prepare  the  way  for  the  testimony 
which  the  Church  bears  to  the  manner  of  her 
establishment  and  of  her  furnishing  for  life 
and  work,  at  which  we  shall  look  in  the  next 
Lecture. 

What  has  been  said  will  not  have  been  spoken 
in  vain  if  it  has  helped  us  a  little  to  accept  in 
their  full  meaning  St.  Paul's  great  words,  that 


PLAN  AND  PREPARATION  35 

the  preparation  for  the  Church  was  "according 
to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father  which  He 
purposed  in  His  Son,  to  result  in  a  dispensation 
marked  by  the  completion  of  the  appointed 
times." 


Lecture  II 
ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING 

Ephesians  i.  12, 

els  T(f  elvat  rj/ids  eU  eTratroj'  86^r)s  avrov  toi>s  irpoTjXiriKdres  iv  T(f  XpiffTtfi. 

"To  result  in  our  being  for  praise  of  His  glory — we  [I  mean] 
who  have  been  the  first  to  hope  in  Christ." 


At  the  close  of  the  preceding  Lecture,  attention 
was  called  to  the  fact,  familiar  enough  but  not 
always  remembered,  that  man's  plans  for  uni- 
versal empire  have  always  ended  in  failure. 
Quite  apart  from  the  consideration  that,  except 
in  the  past  four  centuries,  would-be  conquerors 
have  known  but  a  part  of  the  earth's  surface 
and  have  been  ignorant  of  millions  of  their 
possible  subjects,  no  rulers  or  peoples  have  for 
any  long  time  undertaken  to  govern  all  men 
of  whom  they  have  known.  Yet  the  vision  of 
world  empire  has  been  before  men  from  the 
day  of  Nimrod  to  our  own  day.  And,  what- 
ever else  it  has  meant,  it  has  been  a  witness  to 
belief  in  the  solidarity,  or  at  1  ast  the  possible 
unity,  of  the  human  race;  to  a  confidence  that 
all  nations  may  be  brought  into  something 
36 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  37 

more  than  a  federation,  perhaps  we  may  say 
a  commonwealth.  The  behef  in  the  possibihty 
of  Empire — and  that  means  one  empire,  for  the 
word  really  admits  of  no  plural — has  its  value 
in  our  study  of  what  men  have  done  and  have 
planned  to  do. 

1.  This  thought  of  Empire,  or  universal  King- 
dom, meets  us  in  different  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Psalmists  and  prophets,  either  in 
times  of  victory  and  material  prosperity  or  in 
times  when  they  would  rouse  their  countrymen 
from  the  discouragement  that  came  from  weak- 
ness and  defeat,  sang  and  wrote  of  Israel  as  des- 
tined to  rule  over  all  the  earth,  exacting  tribute 
from  all  other  nations,  subjecting  them  to  right- 
eous laws,  and  enforcing  upon  them  homage  to 
the  one  true  God.  And  as  the  panorama  of 
history  was  unrolled  before  the  eyes  of  later 
writers  and  they  began  to  have  visions  of  the 
unity  of  the  past  with  the  future,  they  saw  and 
described  under  varying  figures  four  great  world- 
empires,  each  mighty  in  its  way,  some  fallen  and 
but  memories,  and  others  existent  or  close  at 
hand.*  Babylon  had  stood  out  in  majesty  with 
wondrous  symbols  which  even  to-day  awe  those 
who  behold  them;  she  had  been  mighty  in  all 
the  world  of  which  she  knew  or  which  had  known 
of  her;   but  Babylon  had  fallen.     Persia  with  the 

•Daniel  u.,  vii. 


38      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

help  of  Media  had  gathered  huge  armies,  had 
prevailed  over  her  neighbors,  and  had  marched 
for  the  conquest  of  lands  of  which  her  predecessor 
had  hardly  known;  and  its  great  bear-like  power 
had  come  to  an  end.  Greece,  the  people  of  poetry 
and  art  and  patriotism,  had  been  turned  into  a 
world-war  army  moving  with  swiftness  against 
the  east  out  of  which  former  conquerors  had 
come;  and  suddenly  the  arm  of  the  great  leader 
had  been  broken  and  his  power  scattered  for 
petty  quarrels  and  a  laughing-stock  to  men. 
And  the  power  which  was  rising  in  the  penin- 
sula still  further  west,  dreadful  and  cruel  and  ex- 
ceeding strong — as  to  this  the  seers  had  no  doubt 
that  it  too  was  destined  to  destruction.  Israel 
was  assured  that  his  God,  the  rightful  God  of 
the  earth,  would  tolerate  no  world-empire;  and 
that,  though  He  might  suffer  it  to  rise,  it  would 
only  be  that  the  crash  of  its  fall  might  be  the 
louder  and  its  ruin  more  irretrievable.  Grandeur, 
vigor,  progress,  strength,  each  in  its  turn  had 
failed  or  was  failing  as  an  enduring  basis  of 
dominion.  The  meaning  of  Babylon's  and  of 
Persia's  attempts  had  perhaps  been  forgotten; 
but  the  beauty  of  Greek  philosophj^  and  poetry 
and  the  fitness  of  the  Greek  language  to  express 
man's  noblest  and  loftiest  thoughts  had  survived 
the  failure  of  Alexander's  conquests;  and  soon 
the  strong  hand  of  Roman  law  and  the  net- 
work of  Roman  roads  was  to  hold  the  world  in 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  39 

one  great  system  of  administration.  In  the  one 
case,  however,  beauty  was  degenerating  into 
sensuousness,  and  in  the  other  law  was  destined 
to  be  a  cloak  for  injustice;  the  cruelty  of  the 
first  empire  was  to  be  reproduced  in  the  fourth. 
The  thought  of  those  to  whom  the  tidings  of 
the  Gospel  were  first  to  come  and  by  whom  its 
message  was  first  to  be  received  had  been  largely 
affected  by  the  visions  of  Daniel  and  of  later 
seers;  they  were  waiting  for  a  great  world- 
change. 

2.  For  they  were  sure  of  the  rise  of  a  fifth 
empire,  the  symbol  of  which  was  not  an  image 
graven  by  art  and  man's  device  nor  a  beast 
rising  out  of  the  troubled  sea  of  human  struggles 
and  passions,  but  a  stone  cut  out  of  the  moun- 
tain without  hands  or  One  hke  unto  a  son  of 
Man  to  whom  the  Ancient  of  Days  should  give 
eternal  dominion.  And  this  empire — I  use  this 
word  rather  than  kingdom,  as  having  for  us  the 
greater  and  more  exclusive  meaning,  though 
presently  it  will  be  necessary  to  come  to  the 
literal  translation  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek, 
and  speak  of  the  kingdom  of  God — this  empire 
was  to  have  an  absolute  moral  power  and  to  be, 
in  this  and  in  other  ways  dependent  on  it,  di- 
verse from  those  which  had  gone  before  it  or 
were  surviving  at  its  foundation  or  perhaps  we 
should  say  its  manifestation.     The  preliminary 


40      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

dispensation  of  Judaism  had  in  itself,  as  has 
been  well  pointed  out,  the  essential  principle 
of  righteousness  which  was  needed  to  balance 
the  attractive  quality  of  Greek  beauty  and  the 
stern  property  of  Roman  law;  and  had  one  but 
risen  who  could  use  it  aright,  it  might  have 
been  expected  to  exert  with  these  a  mighty 
influence  far  reaching  in  space  and  in  time. 
But  even  this,  which  may  have  been  in  the  mind 
of  the  greatest  man  of  the  age,  would  not  have 
been  the  Empire  of  God.  Its  possibilities  were 
God-given;  its  facilities  by  way  of  preparation 
would  have  been  of  great  benefit  to  man;  but 
it  could  never  have  lifted  itself  up  to  full  alle- 
giance to  the  God  for  whose  manifestation  the 
world  was,  for  the  more  part  unconsciously, 
waiting. 

Yet  as  the  power  of  Greece  had  not  sud- 
denly ended,  to  be  succeeded  at  once  by  the 
fully  developed  power  of  Rome,  so  the  influence 
of  the  world  empires  did  not  suddenly  cease 
before  the  revelation  of  a  completely  furnished 
kingdom  of  God.  In  no  history,  whether  we 
call  it  profane  or  sacred,  in  no  development  or 
progress,  whether  we  call  it  natural  or  provi- 
dential, are  there  to  be  seen  such  breaks  or 
cataclysms,  the  sudden  and  utter  cessation  of 
one  principle  or  power  or  method  of  action 
and  the  sudden  substitution  of  another  full- 
grown  in  its  place.     Rome  had  started  on  its 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  41 

way  to  be  a  world-power  before  Greece  had 
faced  and  checked  the  ambition  of  Persia;  the 
pohtical  power  of  Greece  did  not  end  till  a  short 
century  before  the  decline  of  Rome  began, 
while  her  influence  in  matters  of  art  and  of 
intellect  continued  and  in  a  very  real  sense 
continues  to-day. 

So  also  the  power  and  authority  of  Rome 
were  strong  for  many  a  year  after  that  new 
kingdom  had  been  founded  to  which  it  was 
destined  ultimately  to  give  way;  and  its  empire, 
which  seemed  to  fall  in  the  fifth  century  of 
our  era  and  again  in  the  fifteenth  and  yet  again 
when  the  nineteenth  century  had  turned  in  the 
midst  of  its  course,  has  a  sort  of  survival  in  the 
image  of  the  nondescript  beast  which  to-day 
claims  to  exercise  somewhat  of  its  authority. 
The  truth  is  that,  for  good  and  for  evil,  we  are 
the  heirs  of  all  the  ages:  and  that  into  the 
fifth  Empire,  there  ought  to  come  all  the  true 
"honor  and  glory  of  the  nations"  belonging 
to  the  earlier  times  or  surviving  from  them;  and 
also  that  while  it  has  its  place  on  earth — while,  as 
St.  Augustine  said,  non  adhiic  regnat  hoc  regnum — 
it  must  contend  with  the  survival  of  much  which 
in  them  was  dishonorable  and  inglorious.  The 
new  kingdom  is  not  of  earth,  but  it  is  on  earth; 
and  though  it  comes  from  above,  yet  the  prep- 
aration for  it  was  here  below.  The  Church 
of  God  is  a  kingdom  of  men  and  among  men. 


42      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

3.  And  the  Church  was  actually  and  em- 
phatically introduced  among  men  as  an  empire, 
the  kingdom  of  prophecy  and  of  hope,  the  in- 
heritor of  all  that  was  good,  the  corrector  of  all 
that  was  evil,  the  fulfilment  of  all  that  was  im- 
perfect, in  the  former  empires.  It  belonged  to — 
it  was — the  filling-up  of  the  appointed  times. 
As  such  it  was  heralded  by  the  angel  who  an- 
nounced the  Incarnation:  As  to  the  Child  who 
shall  be  born,  "the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto 
Him  the  throne  of  His  father  David;  and  He 
shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  for  ever; 
and  of  His  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end." 
Thus  the  forerunner  of  the  Lord  proclaimed: 
"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  hath  come  near  at 
hand."  Thus  the  Lord  Himself  presently  made 
proclamation  of  Himself:  "The  appointed  time 
hath  been  filled  up,  and  the  kingdom  of  God 
hath  come  near."  *  And  this  was  not  the  lan- 
guage of  those  who  were,  as  we  may  say,  building 
upon  the  old  and  carrying  on  the  phrases  of  the 
former  dispensation  into  that  which  was  open- 
ing before  men.  St.  Paul,  after  his  ministry 
was  well  advanced,  described  it  to  the  elders 
of  Ephesus,  distinctly  a  Greek  city,  by  saying  that 
he  had  gone  among  them  "  preaching  the  king- 
dom"; and  later  yet  he  wrote  to  the  Christians 
at  Colossse,  another  Greek  city  of  the  province 
of  Asia,   that   God   had    '*  delivered  His  people 

•  Luke  i.  38;  Matthew  iii.  2;  Mark  i.  16. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  43 

from  the  power  of  darkness  and  translated  them 
into  the  kingdom  of   His  Son."  *     The  Church 
from  the  first,  with  clear  reference  to  the  visions 
of  the  Old  Testament,  yet  with  strong  empha- 
sis upon  a  contrast  between  that  which  belonged 
to  the  order  of  the  world  and  that  which  came 
from  God  and  belonged  exclusively  to  Him,  was 
and  was  to  be  a  kingdom,  a  universal  kingdom, 
the  empire  of  the  ages.     The  word,  which  liter- 
ally (as  I  have  noted)  is  represented  by   'king- 
dom,'   means    far    more    than    one    among    the 
many  kingdoms,  some  petty  and  some  important, 
of    which    we    read    in    these   latter    days.     The 
Greeks    used     (SamXtia     as    representing    the    su- 
preme   power    of    the    Roman    Emperor,    while 
'  Imperator  '    was   in  early    Christian    times  an 
honorary  term  of  military  distinction:  an  apostle 
wrote  of  the  /Sao-tXcus  as  supreme,   the  historian 
of  the  apostles  gives  the  Emperor  the  courtesy 
title   of  Se/SacTTos,    '  Augustus.'  t     We  can  hardly 
speak  of  the  Empire    of    God,  without  seeming 
to  bring   in    the   id^a   of   arbitrary   power;   and 
the  phrase  Kingdom  of  God,  to  which  we  prob- 
ably must  hold,  seems  rather  to  have  lost  the 
significance  which  it  had  on   the    lips  of  those 
who    first   used    it    in    the    Christian    sense.     It 
betokens    absolute    sovereignty,    but    with    that 
moral  quality  which  bars  all  that  is  arbitrary; 

♦Acts  XX.  25;  Colossians  i.  18. 
fl.  Peter  ii.  18;  Acts  xxv.  26. 


44      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

it  is  not  in  our  American  sense  the  ' '  Republic  of 
God,"  but  there  enters  into  it  our  conception  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  God;  in  one  way  it  takes 
its  place  with  the  imperfect  empires  of  old,  while 
it  leads  to  the  perfection  of  that  glorious  City 
which  needs  no  sanctuary  and  no  palace,  because 
the  Lord  God  all-sovereign  is  its  sanctuary  and 
its  royal  abode,  and  with  Him  the  Lamb  victorious 
as  priest  and  king  for  a  people  itself  priestly  and 
royal — Gloriosissima  Dei  Civitas. 

II 

1.  For  this  Kingdom,  as  we  have  already 
noted,  a  preparation  was  made  and  a  foundation 
laid  in  the  Jewish  election.  In  this  election, 
Christ  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God  stood,  and  this 
it  was  His  purpose  and  design  to  fulfil.  A  study 
of  the  words  which  were  used  to  describe  that 
election,  and  which  passed  over  into  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  Christian  organization,  will  help  us 
to  see  the  closeness  and  the  meaning  of  the 
connection  of  the  new  with  that  which  was 
passing  away.  The  words,  it  needs  not  be  said, 
were  Hebrew  words;  but  they  were  applied  to 
the  Church  in  Greek  words  which  had  already 
a  more  or  less  distinct  connotation  of  their 
own;  and  translated  into  our  tongue  at  a  much 
later  day,  they  have  brought  to  us  a  nomen- 
clature which  partly  is  interpretative  and  partly 
calls   for  interpretation.     We   may   say,   in   our 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  45 

English  vocabulary,  that  the  Church  of  God 
received  from  the  Jewish  election  that  it  should 
be  God's  calling,  God's  flock,  and  God's  people. 
As  to  the  word  Church  itself,  it  so  exactly  rep- 
resents to  any  one  who  knows  Greek  or  Latin 
the  word  cKKX-qaia,  ecclesia,  and  it  borrows  so 
many  of  its  adjectives  from  these  New  Testa- 
ment words,  that  it  requires  an  effort  to  remind 
ourselves  that  it  is  but  a  substitute  for  them 
and  has  by  derivation  an  utterly  different  mean- 
ing from  theirs.  'Church,'  'kyriak,'  is  indeed  a 
Greek  word  in  its  origin ;  but  it  means  '  that 
which  belongs  to  the  Lord,'  and  it  was  the  name 
of  the  building  in  which  Christians  assembled 
for  worship  before  it  was  applied  to  the  company 
or  body  of  men  who  assembled  in  it;  only  after 
our  ancestors  became  Christians  did  they  know 
of  the  one  Church,  the  united  body  of  those 
who  worshipped  in  the  Churches.  But  ecclesia 
represented  quite  distinctly,  as  even  its  sound 
recalled,  the  gathered  assembly  of  old;  each 
ecclesia  was  the  company  of  men  who  were  bidden 
to  come  for  a  special  purpose  to  a  designated 
place  of  meeting.  It  had  in  Greek  a  well-estab- 
lished meaning  before  it  passed  into  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Old  Testament  and  long  before  it 
was  taken  into  the  vocabulary  of  Christianity. 
It  meant  in  the  republics  of  Greece,  especially 
Athens,  and  in  the  so-called  free  cities  of  the 
Roman  world,  such  as  was  Ephesus,  the  called 


46      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

assembly  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  bidden 
to  come  together  for  some  public  duty,  generally 
to  hear  and  to  determine  on  some  course  of  action. 
The  preposition  «  in  the  word  has  nothing  to 
do,  I  am  sure,  with  the  choice  of  part  of  the  men 
in  Athens  or  Ephesus,  those  namely  who  were 
citizens  as  by  a  kind  of  arbitrary  election,  while 
others  were  practically  bidden  to  stay  at  home; 
those  who  were  not  called  were  the  sojourners 
and  the  slaves,  and  no  man  belonging  to  either 
of  these  classes  would  have  imagined  that  he 
was  either  called  to  attend  in  the  agora  or  the 
theatre  or  told  to  stay  without;  it  was  a  call  to 
all  who  were  really  men,  citizens  and  voters,  a 
universal  call.  One  wonders  whether  to-day 
those  who  speak  Greek  or  any  of  the  Romance 
languages  which  are  our  modern  Latin,  have  a 
different  thought,  consciously  or  sub-consciously, 
in  their  minds  when  in  one  form  or  another  they 
say  ecclesia,  from  that  which  the  Englishman 
or  the  Scotchman  or  the  German  has  when  he 
says  'Church'  or  'kirk'  or  'kirche.'  Ask  your- 
selves sometimes  whether  'ecclesia'  or  'church,' 
'assembly'  or  'building,'  comes  first  to  your 
mind  when  the  subject  of  these  Lectures  strikes 
your  eyes  or  your  ears;  whether  they  are  two 
words  of  different  meaning  which  by  habit  or 
by  efiFort  of  thought  we  make  practically  synony- 
mous, or  whether  each  is  a  proper  noun  desig- 
nating something  which  you  well  know  without 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  47 

defining  it.  For  our  present  purpose,  we  shall 
try  to  remember  that  '  Church '  represents  to 
us  'ecclesia'  and  signifies  the  'called'  of  God. 
It  is  superfluous  to  add  that  this  is  the  word 
commonly  used  in  the  New  Testament  for  the 
body  of  men  of  which  we  are  speaking. 

Fairly  common  in  the  Hebrew,  but  often  ap- 
plied to  other  companies  than  those  of  God's 
people,  is  a  word  properly  meaning  a  company 
assembled  by  appointment  or  acting  concertedly; 
it  has  for  its  Greek  equivalent  o-waywyT/  and  in 
English  is  represented  by  '  flock.'  But  in  the 
period  between  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  '  synagogue '  had  come  to  mean  a  place  in 
which  a  local  congregation  could  assemble  for 
prayer  and  instruction,  in  no  way  a  substitute 
for  the  one  Temple,  but  in  a  sense  a  "  house  of 
God  in  the  land."  Of  this  kind  were  all  the 
synagogues  of  which  we  read  in  the  Gospels  and 
the  Acts;  once  only,  and  that  in  the  Epistle  of 
the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  the  "  Wisdom  of  James 
the  Just,"  is  a  Christian  place  of  assembly 
called  a  synagogue.*  Yet  the  thought  of  the 
Hebrew  word  for  which  this  stood  passed  over 
into  the  Christian  Church;  and,  doubtless  from 
memories  of  the  words  of  psalmists  and  prophets 
and  of  the  Lord  Himself,  the  Church  was  called 
the  flock  of  God. 

But  perhaps  more  specially  notable  is  the  use 
*  James  ii  2. 


48      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

of  the  word  Xao's,  '  people '  or  '  folk/  for  the 
Church  of  God  in  type  and  fulfilment.  The 
Hebrew  word,  I  venture  to  think,  grew  rather 
slowly  into  a  theocratic  sense;  but  there  is  a 
clear  distinction  between  the  singular  and  the 
plural  of  the  noun,  the  people  of  God  and  the 
peoples  of  the  world,  and  still  more  between 
the  word  itself  and  the  word  which  we  render 
'nations'  or  'gentiles.'  In  the  Greek  Xaos  is 
a  word  of  honor  and  dignity  quite  beyond  that 
which  appears  in  c^vos;  the  latter  is  rather 
divisive,  and  is  read  often  in  the  plural,  while 
the  former  is  like  a  proper  noun  and  by  reason 
of  its  special  application  stands  oftenest  in  the 
singular  number.  It  has  a  closely  human  ap- 
plication to  the  men  of  God's  calling  and  of  His 
pasture  as  they  stand  in  a  personal  relation  to 
Him;  they  are  His  people,  of  His  own  possession, 
nay,  of  His  own  household.  All  these  titles 
belong  to  the  Christian  Church,  as  it  is  the 
calling,  the  flock,  the  folk  of  Him  whose  name  it 
bears. 

2.  This  the  Church  claims  for  herself.  And 
as  in  her  life  she  proves  or  fails  to  prove  this 
claim,  her  work  stands  or  falls.  Her  foundation, 
speaking  externally,  was  that  which  was  estab- 
lished and  proved  and  settled  of  old.  By  a 
calling — in  the  biblical  sense  of  the  word,  an 
election — by   a  gathering   together,  by  the  fra- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  49 

ming  of  a  common  life,  there  was  ready  for  the 
Church  a  foundation,  a  history,  a  cause  of  action. 
Neglect  and  failure  had  shaken  the  foundation, 
marred  the  history,  turned  the  lofty  ambition 
into  discouragement;  the  condition  of  the  Jewish 
Church  and  Commonwealth  when  the  Son  of 
God  came  to  claim  it  for  the  beginning  of  His 
Church  was  far  different  from  its  heaven-revealed 
ideal,  the  pattern  shown  its  great  lawgiver  in  the 
mount,  far  different  from  that  for  which  the 
earlier  prophets  had  hoped  and  which  the  eyes 
of  the  later  prophets  saw  in  vision.  Yet  the 
wisdom  with  which  the  holy  house  had  been 
builded,  the  understanding  by  which  it  had  been 
established,  the  knowledge  which  had  filled  its 
hidden  chambers  with  precious  things,  had  not 
been  spent  in  vain.  Aspiration  for  worship, 
preparedness  for  truth,  consecration  for  duty — 
these  had  never  been  utterly  despised  or  neg- 
lected; and  perhaps — if  one  may  venture  to 
measure  great  things  to  which  external  tests 
may  not  be  applied — perhaps  there  was  the  more 
of  all  these  because  they  were  held  by  the  few 
who  really  cared  for  them  and  cherished  them. 
The  foundation  perhaps  was  buried,  that  it 
might  support  the  great  structure  that  should 
rise  upon  it. 

3.  But  the   Church  not  only  grew  from   the 
election    of  old;    it  has  not  its    foundation  in 


50      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Judaism  alone.  Its  life — for  we  must  mix  our 
metaphors  as  St.  Paul  did,  and  speak  of  a  grow- 
ing building  and  a  rooted  foundation — its  life 
came  also  from  the  ancient  covenant,  and  in 
its  very  origin  it  was  a  Catholic  Church.  The 
nations,  as  well  as  the  people,  had  been  pre- 
paring for  it;  Babylon  and  Egypt,  Persia  and 
Greece,  Roman  and  Parthian  had  all  uncon- 
sciously shaped  the  world's  life,  opened  the  world's 
sores,  lifted  the  world's  hopes,  that  the  Son  of 
God  become  Man  might  satisfy  the  world's 
needs  and  fulfil  the  world's  possibilities  of  good. 
The  Church  has  always  proclaimed,  from  the 
moment  when  she  entered  into  her  consciousness 
of  life  and  power,  that  it  was  for  her  to  take 
up  and  confirm  the  universal  covenant  of  old; 
and  the  apostles,  preaching  this  truth,  declared 
the  unity  of  mankind  in  Christ  and  for  Christ. 
Christ  as  the  Head  of  the  Church,  the  Church 
as  the  body  of  Christ,  went  back  past  the  paren- 
thesis of  the  law;  and  now,  this  having  served 
its  purpose  of  explanation,  the  oracle  of  God 
was  heard  again  speaking  to  all  men,  revealing 
to  them  all  truth  that  could  be  taught,  calling 
them  to  lofty  acts  of  worship  and  therewith  to 
the  obedience  of  bravery  and  of  patience.  It  is 
the  Church's  work  "  to  illumine  for  all  men  what 
is  the  dispensation  of  the  mystery  which  hath 
been  from  the  ages  hidden  in  the  God  who 
created  the  universe." 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  51 


III 

1.  The  narrative  of  the  Gospels  belongs  in  a 
way  to  the  preparation  for  the  Church  and  in  a 
way  to  its  establishment;  it  tells  of  the  gathering 
and  the  preliminary  fashioning  of  substance  yet 
being  imperfect  and  of  the  fitting  of  life  which 
could  be  bestowed  upon  it.  The  book  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  contains  the  history  of  the 
birth  of  the  Church  and  of  its  establishment  first 
as  the  heir  of  the  election  and  then  as  contin- 
uing and  even  expanding  the  covenant.  Both 
in  the  Gospels  and  in  the  Acts  the  story  is  told 
very  simply  and  with  little  argument  or  explana- 
tion. The  evangelists  recorded  the  words  and 
the  acts  of  a  Person,  of  whose  essential  divinity 
and  perfect  humanity  they  were  persuaded;  and 
they  did  not  need  often  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  what  was  said  and  done  in  the  life 
of  ministry  and  of  suffering  and  in  the  final  vic- 
tory was  beyond  the  range  of  the  wonted  power 
and  experience  of  men.  They  knew  Christ  and 
believed  in  Christ,  and  they  were  writing  for 
those  who  had  been  taught  to  know  Him  and 
believe  in  Him;  and  they  wrote  in  a  natural 
way  of  what  they  were  assured  was  natural 
for  Him,  not  as  later  critics  might  decide  that 
they  ought  to  have  written  with  a  view  to  ques- 
tions which  unbelieving  ingenuity  might  devise. 
So  in   the  early  chapters  of  the  Acts,   and   to 


52      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

some  extent'  throughout  the  book,  we  have  the 
record  of  very  remarkable  events  as  told  by  those 
who  took  part  in  them  and  knew  them  to  be 
remarkable  and  yet  were  persuaded  that  they 
were  natural  and  to  be  expected  under  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  took  place.  The 
Gospels  tell  us  and  then  assume  that  the  Son 
of  God  has  come  into  the  world;  the  book  of 
the  Acts  tells  us  and  then  assumes  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  been  bestowed  upon  the  Church. 
It  was  in  accord  with  the  nature  of  the  Incarnate 
Son  that  His  life  among  men  should  be  above  men ; 
it  was  in  accord  with  the  nature  of  the  Spirit 
sent  from  on  high,  the  Spirit  of  the  oeconomy, 
that  His  life  in  the  Church  should  bestow  and 
exercise  and  call  forth  powers  such  as  had  not 
been  seen  before.  So  it  had  always  been;  noth- 
ing could  be  simpler  and  at  the  same  time  more 
incomprehensible  than  the  narrative  of  the  crea- 
tion with  which  the  Bible  opens;  and  with 
scarce  an  exception  the  miracles  of  the  Old 
Testament  are,  as  one  has  said,  natural  miracles 
and  not  miracles  of  magic.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment nothing  is  more  really  natural,  very  simple 
and  without  any  suggestion  of  marvel  or  of 
wonder,  than  St.  John's  record  of  the  events 
of  the  Resurrection  morning;  he  wrote  it,  doubt- 
less, long  after  it  occurred,  when  he  had  thought 
out  its  simplicity  and  its  necessity;  and  its  very 
quietness  has  a  power  of  persuasion  or  of  con- 


ESTABLISHINIENT  AND  FTONISHING  53 

firmation  which  we  specially  feel  when  the  Easter 
Gospel  is  read.  But  perhaps  the  most  powerful 
illustration,  because  it  has  to  do  with  the  two- 
fold beginning  of  the  new  order,  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  writings  of  St.  Luke.  At  the  beginning  of 
his  Gospel  he  tells  us  of  the  coming  of  the  Son 
in  the  Incarnation;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Acts  he  tells  us  of  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  in 
what  we  may  call  the  Inspiration.  The  Gospel 
narrative,  cast  in  the  model  of  the  older  Scrip- 
tures, first  told  in  Hebrew  with  Hebrew  hymns 
and  all  interestingly  suggestive  of  the  Mother's 
thought  and  voice,  does  not  overcome  us  with 
wonder,  but  rather  leads  us  with  the  Mother 
to  keep  all  these  things  and  ponder  them  in  our 
hearts;  these  great  acts,  "  done  in  the  silence  of 
God,"  and  affecting  His  great  universe,  are  told 
almost  silently  lest  their  power  should  be  weak- 
ened by  an  attempt  at  interpretation  or  a  call 
to  wonder.  The  Incarnation  was  marked  by  a 
new  gift  of  prophecy;  but  the  music  of  the  Bene- 
dictus  and  the  Magnificat  was  that  of  worship 
so  profound  that  it  must  be  simply  rehearsed 
and  quietly  offered.  The  Inspiration  was  marked 
by  a  new  gift  of  life,  and  it  showed  itself  indeed 
at  first  in  an  outburst  of  ecstatic  utterance  with 
strange  sounds  and  acts;  but  these  were  pres- 
ently declared  to  be  exactly  what  was  to  have 
been  expected,  and  they  led  to  the  life  of  normal 
enthusiasm  and  quiet  use  of  the  Spirit's  power 


54      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

which  belongs  to  an  inspired  Church.  "  To  have 
a  right  judgment  in  all  things  and  evermore  to 
rejoice  in  the  Spirit's  holy  comfort,"  that  is  to 
say,  to  be  happy  in  having  His  strength — this 
it  is  to  which  Pentecost  led,  the  key  to  the  record 
of  the  history  which  followed.  The  foundation 
was  on  lines  perfectly  natural,  because  they  were 
directed  by  a  divine  necessity. 

2.  In  the  power  of  the  Spirit  thus  given  and 
thus  working,  St.  Peter  and  the  rest  of  the  first- 
called  apostles,  and  presently  St.  Paul  and 
those  who  with  him  extended  the  Apostolic 
college,  carried  on  the  work  of  the  establishment 
and  the  furnishing  of  the  Church.  They  ex- 
pected much,  and  much  was  expected  of  them; 
for  they  were  conscious  of  the  bestowal  of 
power,  and  those  among  whom  and  for  whom 
they  worked  were  persuaded  that  they  had  the 
power  of  the  Spirit's  gifts  and  that  they  could 
bestow  that  power  by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Their 
authority  came  from  that  which  they  knew 
of  the  Lord's  teaching  about  Himself  and  from 
His  life  made  perfect  from  Himself  through 
suffering  and  victory.  As  I  have  suggested 
before,  we  can  gather  from  the  record  of  their 
acts  the  substance  and  sometimes  the  details 
of  the  exposition  of  the  older  Scriptures  as  the 
Lord  had  opened  them  to  the  understandings 
of  the  disciples  in  the  great  forty  days,  the  mean- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  55 

ing  of  the  suffering  and  the  glory  and  how  each 
had  its  plan  in  the  scheme  of  man's  redemption. 
Two  verses  of  the  Psalms,  we  may  be  well  assured, 
He  expounded  to  them,  and  again  and  again  the 
early  preachers  and  those  who  followed  dwelt 
on  their  meaning:  "  Thou  wilt  not  leave  My 
soul  in  hell,  in  the  world  of  the  dead  ";  *  this 
taught  the  power  of  that  holy  life,  so  holy  and  so 
strong  that,  though  brought  into  contact  with 
death  and  for  a  moment  yielding  to  it,  it  must 
overcome  it;  that  the  Incarnate  one,  even 
though  He  died,  did  still  hve,  and  that  with  a 
life  which  must  of  very  necessity  be  manifested: 
and  "  Sit  Thou  on  My  right  hand,  until  I  make 
thine  enemies  Thy  footstool";!  this  "oracle 
of  Jahweh  to  Adonai "  was  shown  to  be  a  proph- 
ecy of  the  Ascension  and  the  Session  and  the 
Return,  as  the  Church  soon  began  to  rehearse 
them  in  her  Creed.  Before  the  Resurrection 
these  passages  and  others  like  them  had  but  a 
vague  meaning,  and  could  serve  only  by  way  of 
suggestion,  not  as  texts  for  great  arguments  of 
conviction;  the  Lord  living  in  His  new  life  could 
in  that  life  show  the  significance  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  present  truths  which  they  then  ex- 
pressed. Moreover,  the  great  power  of  the 
Spirit,    which    could    not    appear — which    could 

•Psalm  xvi.  8-11;  Acts  ii.  25-28,  xiii.  86. 
t  Psalm  ex.  1;  Acts  ii.  34,  35;  I.  Corinthians  xv.  25;  Ephesians 
i.  20;  Colossians  iii.  1;  Hebrews  i.  8,  18. 


56      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

not  be — until  He  should  be  sent  by  the  ascended 
Christ,  working  in  its  pristine  vigor,  teaching 
all  things,  bringing  to  remembrance  all  that 
had  been  said  in  parables  and  explaining  it, 
leading  along  the  way  in  all  truth — that  power, 
so  far  surpassing  all  that  had  been  shown  in  the 
time  of  preparation  of  which  the  Gospels  speak, 
was  moving  the  minds  and  hearts  and  souls  of 
those  to  whom  He  had  been  given,  and  the 
Church  was  seen  to  be  furnished  with  wondrous 
energy  which  was  manifested  in  wondrous  ways. 
The  early  Christians  knew  not  the  manner  of 
its  coming  or  of  its  operation,  and  for  the  more 
part  they  were  not  curious  to  search  into  it;  only 
they  knew  it,  they  yielded  themselves  to  it,  they 
accepted  it,  it  made  them  new  men,  and  with 
the  breath  of  a  new  life  they  were  carried  on  by 
it,  they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied, 
they  manifested  wisdom  and  understanding, 
counsel  and  ghostly  strength,  knowledge  and  true 
godliness;  while  all  was  tempered  and  directed 
by  God's  holy  fear.  The  new  age  proved  itself 
to  be  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit. 

3.  The  proof,  then,  was  in  the  verj'  natural- 
ness of  all  this  which  was  so  new  and  wonderful. 
As  the  proof  of  the  Resurrection-life  laj'  in 
the  fact  that  the  Lord  was  alive  and  was  doing 
the  deeds  of  life,  so  the  proof  of  the  Church's 
life  did  not  submit  itself  to  argument  or  demon- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  57 

stration,  but  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
Church  was  ahve.  This  life  of  the  Lord  and  of 
His  Church,  each  (as  we  shall  later  see)  comple- 
menting the  other  because  neither  can  be  complete 
in  itself,  is  shown  to  us  in  its  operation,  histori- 
cally, theologically,  practically,  teleologically,  in 
the  book  of  the  Acts,  in  the  Apostolic  Epistles, 
and  in  the  Apocalypse.  They  do  not  know  the 
living  Christ,  the  Christ  of  the  Church,  with 
her  worship  and  her  theology,  the  Christ  for  whose 
return  the  Church  is  preparing  and  in  whose 
return  alone  the  Church  and  the  world  can  find 
perfection,  who  do  not  read  beyond  the  Gospels, 
even  though  the  Gospels  tell  of  the  great  victory 
and  the  entrance  into  glory.  To  know  Christ 
aright  we  must  know  Him  as  revealed  by  the 
Spirit  in  the  Church;  and  the  record  of  that  re- 
vealing is  in  those  early  monuments  of  faith 
and  knowledge,  of  hope  and  experience,  of  les- 
sons of  duty  to  be  practised  in  love,  which  the 
Church  has  preserved  in  the  records  and  the 
letters  and  the  visions  of  men  who  stood  close 
to  the  beginnings  but  had  the  inspiration  of  the 
future;  a  record  transmitted  to  a  new  genera- 
tion through  many  witnesses,  that  they  might 
commit  it  to  faithful  men  who  should  be  able  to 
teach  others  also.  The  Church  was  furnished 
with  the  truth,  and  was  made  keeper  and  witness 
of  that  truth. 


58      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


IV 

If  we  are  asked  to  classify,  in  a  practical  way 
and  with  some  reference  to  our  present  needs, 
the  gifts  which  the  Spirit  bestowed  upon  the 
Church  and  which  still  remain  with  her,  for  her 
inward  growth  and  for  her  duty  of  service,  I 
should  bring  them  under  the  three  heads  of 
Continuity  and  Adaptability  and  Experience. 

1.  She  has  and  she  must  hold  and  prize  that 
continuity  which  is  a  sure  mark  of  all  life.  It  is 
the  historical  continuity  of  a  kingdom,  the  vital 
continuity  of  a  body.  Far  more  than  a  legal 
immortalitj^  though  even  this  is  not  a  fiction — 
I  may  be  pardoned  the  paradox,  but  legal  fic- 
tions are  not  fictitious,  any  more  than  parables 
are  fictitious — not  at  all  an  immortality  such  as 
might  be  thought  to  come  from  a  guarantee 
against  corruption,  it  is  a  great  and  enduring  and 
necessary  fact.  It  is  a  continuity  tested  in  many 
ways  as  any  life  may  be  tested;  yet  not  proved 
by  satisfying  the  tests  that  may  be  applied  or 
by  its  reactions  when  stimulated  from  without, 
but  manifested  as  life  by  doing  the  acts  of  life. 
A  living  body  experiences  changes  of  nearly 
every  sort,  except  that  of  its  vitality;  and  we 
are  puzzled  sometimes  by  those  who  question 
its  identity,  as  some  of  the  ancients  questioned 
the  identity  of  the  good  ship  Argo,  so  often  in  the 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  59 

course  of  centuries  had  her  parts  been  repaired 
and  replaced;  but  our  conviction  of  fact  over- 
comes what  we  call  our  logic,  and  we  know  that 
the  continuity  of  life  carries  with  it  the  assur- 
ance of  the  identity  of  mind  and  even  of  body. 
There  is  a  life  which  can  be  traced,  a  life  inex- 
plicable in  the  cause  and  the  manner  and  often 
the  purpose  of  its  variations,  but  for  that  reason 
(we  may  venture  to  say)  all  the  more  real.  Not 
corporeal,  but  corporate  in  this  life,  it  is  the  action 
of  a  real  body  which  has  not  called  a  soul  into 
itself,  but  is  alwaj^s  in  process  of  making  by  the 
action  of  its  soul.  In  organization  and  in  ac- 
tion, because  in  Spirit  and  in  life,  the  Church 
has  continuity. 

2.  But  because  hers  is  the  continuity  of  a  life, 
the  Church  has  adaptability — an  attribute  or 
power,  failing  which  the  life  is  impaired  and 
may  be  in  danger  of  coming  to  an  end.  As  the 
principles  of  a  national  life  stand  all  the  more 
strongly  because  their  application  is  accommo- 
dated to  the  changes  in  times  and  usages  and 
men's  manners,  as  the  consistency  of  a  character 
proves  itself  more  certainly  and  more  profitably 
when  it  encounters  a  new  diflSculty  or  is  challenged 
by  an  unexpected  crisis,  as  the  real  world,  as 
well  that  of  grace  as  that  of  providence  or  of 
nature,  has  no  uniformity  of  expression  or  of 
demand,  so  the  life  of  the  Church  shows  the  mani- 


60      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

fold  wisdom  of  the  Spirit  by  its  adaptability,  its 
personal  adaptability  which  at  one  time  or  an- 
other affects  it  in  everything  except  the  prin- 
ciple of  its  life.  Thus  the  Church  has  remained 
visible  in  spite  of  the  working  of  the  powers  of 
destruction  which  have  set  themselves  in  array 
against  her;  she  has  lost  none  of  her  attributes 
in  spite  of  sin  and  division  and  narrowness  and  the 
temptation  to  novelty;  she  has  the  same  person- 
ality, never  utterly  losing  any  power  or  laying 
down  any  authority  or  shirking  any  responsi- 
bility or  forgetting  her  call  to  service  with  great 
humility;  thus  she  has  ever  affected  the  world, 
while  yet  in  her  own  true  self  the  world  has 
not  affected  her  for  harm.  We  often  dread  to 
concede  to  the  Church,  as  a  body  or  in  some  part 
of  its  action,  this  really  divine  and  most  neces- 
sary gift  of  adaptability ;  rather  we  should  cherish 
it  and  realize  its  value  as  a  true  mark  of  the 
operation  of  the  Spirit. 

3.  This  in  a  way  shows  the  power  that  comes 
from  the  experience  which,  led  by  the  Spirit, 
the  Church  gains  and  is  taught  to  use.  Out 
of  this  experience  comes  largely  her  ability  to 
influence,  and  on  her  ability  to  influence  depends 
her  usefulness  in  the  world  of  man.  Continuity 
alone,  as  that  of  a  Medo-Persian  law,  could  give 
no  real  experience;  exaggerated  adaptability, 
s  that  of  a  Lesbian  rule,  could  give  no  worthy 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  61 

or  helpful  experience;  continuity  quickened  by 
adaptation,  adaptability  controlled  by  contin- 
uance, these  acting  together  give  the  power  of 
corporate  action  in  the  use  of  experience,  the 
practical  carrying  out  of  the  lessons  taught 
by  life  and  learned  from  life.  The  Spirit  in  the 
Church  both  directs  and  attracts.  And,  if  I 
mistake  not,  this  is  the  real  appeal  of  the  via 
media,  a  phrase  too  apt  to  move  a  smile  or  to 
rouse  a  spirit  of  contempt.  Ludicrous  and  con- 
temptible is  a  middle  path  which  is  chosen  to 
avoid  making  a  decision  or  to  shirk  responsibility 
or  to  give  a  meaningless  but  highsounding  name. 
But  to  keep  to  a  path  carefully  laid  out  as  lead- 
ing to  the  desired  end  of  a  journey,  to  tread  it 
with  the  persistency  of  a  pilgrim  in  spite  of  at- 
tractions on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  to 
keep  in  the  middle  path,  not  because  it  is  in  the 
middle,  but  because  it  is  the  path  from  which 
none  but  a  foolish  wayfarer  would  stray,  this  is 
to  act  wisely,  to  be  rightly  influenced  and  rightly 
to  use  experience.  An  application  of  this  can  be 
readily  made  to  matters  of  worship,  of  teach- 
ing, and  of  obedience;  in  each  there  is  a  tendency 
to  the  rigidity  of  unvarying  usage,  and  in  each 
a  tendency  to  seek  adaptation  to  any  passing 
phase  of  thought  or  imaginary  need;  the  true 
balance  is  found  when  the  Spirit  teaches  the  les- 
son of  experience.  For  so,  to  revert  to  the  words 
which  I  read  as  my  text,  we  may  see  how  they 


62      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

who  were  the  first  to  hope  in  Christ  lead  us  to 
praise  that  glory,  that  "  manifestation  of  excel- 
lence," which  is  still  manifested  in  the  living 
body  as  it  shows  its  diverse  duties,  powers  and 
duties  harmonized  in  experience,  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  establishing  and  furnishing  the  body 
for  the  divine  manifoldness  of  life. 

V 

It  remains  in  this  lecture  that  we  look,  though 
it  must  be  briefly,  at  the  titles  which  the  Creeds 
give  to  the  Church,  as  they  help  us  to  under- 
stand how  it  is  that  she  is  furnished  for  her  own 
perfection  and  her  service  to  mankind. 

1.  These  titles  of  Unity,  Sanctity,  Catholicity, 
Apostolicity,  though  confessedly  necessary  for 
the  description  of  the  Church  in  every  age,  yet 
in  the  fulness  of  their  meaning  belong  to  the 
Church  in  the  perfection  to  which  it  has  not  yet 
attained.  It  may  be  affirmed  indeed  that  in  the 
earliest  days  of  its  history,  when  first  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  was  working  in  that  little  company 
which  was  joined  with  the  Apostles  through 
faith  in  Christ,  the  Church  was  ideally  perfect; 
it  was  one  and  holy,  catholic  and  apostolic. 
But  while  we  readily  grant  the  application  of 
the  first  two  adjectives,  for  they  have  a  sort  of 
negative  reality,  we  should  hesitate  to  use  the 
other  two  at  all  strictly  inasmuch  as  they  con- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  63 

note  attributes  which  speak  of  experience  and 
growth.  There  is  a  true  unity  in  that  which 
has  never  been  assailed  by  powers  that  lead  to 
selfishness  and  division;  and  we  may  call  that 
character  holy  which  has  the  beauty  of  unassailed 
purity;  and  thus,  as  with  the  relative  perfect- 
ness  of  childhood,  the  Church  began  as  one  and 
holy,  its  very  innocence  having  in  it  the  founda- 
tion of  virtue.  But  catholicity  and  apostolicity 
— these,  though  included  in  the  design  of  the 
Christian  body,  must  be  attained.  To  be  fitted 
for  all  men  in  all  places  and  at  all  times;  to  be 
the  receptacle  and  the  accredited  messenger  of 
all  truth;  to  invite  to  itself  and  to  find  a  use  for 
the  possibilities  of  every  people  and  of  each 
individual;  this  calls  for  training  and  the  use  of 
experience.  And  to  do  the  work  of  apostles, 
to  be  ready  to  be  sent  and  to  go  furnished  for 
ambassage,  to  perfect  and  continue  an  organi- 
zation adapting  it  to  varying  needs,  this  belongs 
not  to  any  nature  however  good  at  its  beginning; 
it  is  for  those  who  by  reason  of  use  have  their 
powers  and  aptitudes  exercised  to  discern  and  to 
act  with  judgment.  Of  all  four  of  these  titles 
the  reahty  and  necessity  consists  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  ideals;  unity  and  holiness  as 
marks  of  character  and  power  must  come  from 
experience,  and  catholicity  and  apostolicity  must 
be  attained  by  the  effort  for  the  brave  and 
patient   carrying  out  of  a  principle.     They  all 


64      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

belong  to  a  living  Church  which  is  growing  up 
in  them  and  to  them.  It  is  easy  to  say,  as  we 
must  in  honesty  say,  that  practically  there  has 
never  been  a  time  when  the  Church  could  be 
described  by  the  four  terms  which  we  apply  to 
it  when  we  repeat  the  Creeds;  and  we  cannot 
but  grieve  that  "  appearances  are  against  us  " 
when  we  make  the  aflBrmation  of  our  faith.  But 
we  should  be  speaking  in  opposition  to  our 
convictions  if  we  denied  any  one  of  these  titles 
as  real,  as  possible,  as  attainable,  as  aflSrming 
a  real  possession  and  declaring  a  definite  duty 
of  the  Church.  And  when  the  foes  of  the  Church 
bring  against  it  and  against  its  members  the 
charge  that  in  the  body  and  in  individuals  there 
is  a  failure  to  reach  that  which  is  professed, 
they  do  at  least  bear  witness  to  the  loftiness 
and  purity  of  the  profession,  and  to  the  fact  that 
the  Church  does  not  despair  of  herself  or  of  her 
members  or  of  mankind. 

2.  Thus  in  our  Creeds  we  affirm  the  Church's 
principles  and  ideals  and  confident  hope  for  her- 
self. If  she  cannot  show  numerical  unity,  she 
can  at  least  declare  that  integrally  she  is  and 
must  be  one;  and  she  can  declare  that  in  the 
unity  of  the  object  of  her  worship,  in  the  abso- 
lute agreement  in  the  great  doctrines  which  have 
to  deal  with  the  Godhead,  the  Incarnation  of  the 
Son,  the  life  of  the  Spirit  shown  in  the  visible 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  65 

Churcli,  in  the  consent  as  to  the  existence  of  means 
of  grace  and  the  duty  of  using  them,  and  as  to 
the  obHgation  of  the  moral  law,  there  is  a  unity 
which  has  more  real  power  than  have  all  the 
divisive  forces  which  have  wrought  and  still 
work  such  havoc  and  shame.  If  the  history 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  world  which  the  Church 
ought  to  direct  is  everywhere  marred  by  sin, 
and  even  if  (as  some  sober  writers  have  said) 
the  sins  of  Christians  are  more  grievous  than 
those  of  the  heathen  in  past  ages  and  in  our 
own  time,  yet  the  Church  is  working  for  holi- 
ness and  is  a  holy  body,  even  as  any  of  our 
universities  is  a  learned  bodj'  though  it  contains 
many  unlearned  men  and  some  with  very  inade- 
quate ideas  of  what  learning  really  is;  there  is 
the  holiness  of  dedication,  of  choice,  of  influence, 
the  holiness  of  separation  from  evil,  abhorrence 
of  it,  drawing  back  from  it,  the  holiness  of  every 
effort  for  virtue  and  godliness  of  living,  the 
holiness  which  must  be  fostered  by  every  approach 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  man  and  by  every  desire 
of  man  to  seek  that  Holy  Spirit's  protection 
and  inspiration.  If  the  teaching  of  the  Church 
is  narrowed  by  some  who  insist  that  none  shall 
see  those  aspects  of  truth  which  are  not  within 
the  direct  range  of  their  eyes,  and  her  extension 
is  hindered  by  those  who  would  convert  men  to 
their  own  national  or  individual  traits  and  habits 
before  pointing  them  to  the  Redeemer  of  all, 


66      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  the  very  name  of  Catholic  is  used  by  some 
in  an  exclusive  sense,  yet  the  great  range  of  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  their  fundamental  har- 
mony, their  manifold  application,  all  the  proofs 
that  the  soul  of  man  is  naturally  Christian  and 
Churchly,  teach  us  not  to  despair  of  catholicity. 
And  again,  though  many  of  those  who  call  them- 
selves Christians  fail  to  follow  the  steps  of  the 
apostles  and  some  make  little  of  the  importance 
of  holding  to  the  apostles'  organization,  still 
the  Church  as  a  whole  does  accept  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  apostles'  teaching,  does  believe  that 
she  is  sent  with  a  message  and  a  commission 
which  has  been  handed  down  to  her  and  which 
she  must  transmit  to  those  who  come  after; 
and  there  are  few  who  do  not  believe  that  there 
is  a  commissioned  ministry  from  whose  lips  they 
expect  to  hear  authorized  lessons  of  truth  and  from 
whose  hands  they  believe  that  they  receive 
assured  pledges  of  grace.  In  short,  if  in  the 
world  there  is  any  power  which  works  for  unity 
beyond  all  other  powers,  any  inspiration  for  holi- 
ness which  stands  forth  pre-eminent  above  all 
others,  any  generosity  of  teaching  and  power 
of  application  which  is  specially  fitted  to  deal  with 
all  truth  and  to  bring  a  message  to  all  men, 
any  enduring  organization  which  is  a  guarantee 
of  continuity  and  a  witness  of  authority,  it  is 
to  be  found  in  each  case  in  the  Church  of  Christ; 
the   Church  is  endowed   with   unity  and   sane- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AND  FURNISHING  67 

tity  and  catholicity  and  apostolicity  and  is 
pledged  to  them;  whenever  they  are  wanted 
they  can  be  found  in  her,  and  from  her  endow- 
ment they  can  be  drawn  for  all  of  man's  spiritual 
needs. 

3.  As  members  of  the  Church  we  make  these 
declarations  as  to  her  inherent  character  and  the 
gifts  which  she  can  bestow.  But  when  we  stop 
to  think  of  what  they  mean  and  what  there  is 
in  the  great  body  of  Christians  and  in  ourselves 
as  believers  correspondent  to  them,  we  are 
filled  with  shame.  We  are  keeping  the  Church 
from  being  in  her  fulness  what  she  is  by  dedica- 
tion and  in  possibility;  we  have  not  in  us,  as  we 
ought  to  have,  those  qualities  which  we  recognize 
as  forming  her  ideal.  Yet  there  is  another  side 
to  all  this,  for  the  words  are  after  all  words  of 
inspiration  and  of  courage.  If  we  really  believe, 
as  we  say  day  by  day  that  we  do  believe,  that  the 
Church  of  which  we  are  members,  established 
for  our  benefit,  bringing  to  us  the  life  of  God, 
furnished  with  heavenly  endowments,  has  these 
great  attributes,  these  powers  of  a  coming  age, 
and  if  we  are  sure,  as  sure  we  must  be  through 
our  belief  in  God,  that  they  shall  prevail  in  the 
world  to  which  the  Church  and  we  in  the  Church 
must  minister;  then  there  is  a  mighty  force 
which  can  move  us  and  the  world  into  harmony 
with  the  divine  plan;  then  we,  so  far  in  time  and 


68      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

place  separated  from  those  who  were  the  first 
to  hope  in  Christ,  shall  like  them  be  to  the  praise 
of  the  glory  of  Almighty  God;  and  when  His 
glory  shall  in  us  be  revealed,  we  shall  be  glad 
also  with  exceeding  joy. 


Lecture  III 
CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING 

Ephesians  i.  22,  28. 

T^  iKKXijalg,,  rJTtj  iffrlv  rh  ffw/xa  dvToO,  rb  trXi^pu/Jia  rod  t4  irivra  iv 
irdffiv  irl^-qpovfjAvov. 

"[Head  over  the  universe]  for  the  Church,  seeing  that  it  is 
His  body,  the  completion  of  Him  Who  is  approachSig  comple- 
tion universally  in  the  universe." 

As  we  enter  on  the  special  study  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  Ordering  of  the  Church,  we  must 
recall  that  the  Church  is  represented  in  the 
New  Testament  under  the  three-fold  figure  of 
a  kingdom,  a  body,  and  a  building,  these  three 
figures  being  sometimes  kept  distinct  and  some- 
times treated  as  complementary  or  supplementary. 
Each,  I  think  we  may  say,  implies  purpose  and 
ordering  and  progress;  perhaps  the  idea  of  design 
rather  inheres  in  our  thought  of  a  kingdom, 
while  the  orderly  arrangement  of  parts  belongs 
more  particularly  to  the  body,  and  progress  is 
better  illustrated  by  the  erection  of  a  building. 
The  study  of  each  of  these  metaphors  will  help 
us  in  the  inquiry  which  this  evening  we  have 
before  us. 


70      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


1.  Reminding  ourselves  that  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  word  '  Kingdom  '  has  rather  the  dig- 
nity and  the  exclusiveness  of  our  word  *  Empire,' 
we  are  met  at  the  outset  with  the  question 
whether  the  kingdom  of  heaven  or  of  God  or  of 
Christ  means  the  '  reign '  or  the  '  realm '  of  heaven 
or  of  God  or  of  Christ.  Does  it  refer,  that  is 
to  say,  to  the  act  of  ruling  or  to  the  sphere  in 
which  the  rule  is  exercised?  Are  we  declaring 
more  distinctly  that  heaven  or  God  or  Christ 
is  a  king  or  that  there  is  a  kingdom  in  which 
heaven  or  God  or  Christ  rules?  Substitute 
'empire'  for  'kingdom,'  and  we  are  led  at  once 
to  what  I  believe  is  the  right  answer.  Our 
topic,  as  that  of  the  forerunner  and  of  the  Lord 
and  of  His  apostles,  is  the  realm  in  which  (or 
over  which)  there  is  a  divine  and  rightful  king; 
and  we  are  strengthened  in  this  definition  of  the 
term  by  considering  that  the  phrases  '  body  of 
Christ,'  'house  of  God,'  have  to  do  with  some- 
thing of  which  He  is  the  head,  something  in  which 
He  dwells. 

Our  study  is  further  simplified  if  we  accept  the 
conclusion  on  which  scholars  seem  to  be  well 
in  agreement,  that  '  the  kingdom  of  heaven ' 
means  exactly  the  same  as  'the  kingdom  of 
God.'  The  pious  Jew  who  would  not  venture 
to  pronounce  the  proper  name  of  his  God,  but 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       71 

substituted  for  it  a  word  which  we  translate 
literally  by  'Lord,'  was  not  willing  to  use  too 
freely  the  word  'God'  itself;  and  for  'God'  he 
was  wont  to  substitute  the  word  '  heaven,'  as 
being  God's  abode  and  suggesting  Him  who 
dwells  therein.  (A  like  change,  we  may  note, 
is  often  made  by  actors  and  readers,  in  the  plays 
of  Shakespeare  and  other  writers  of  his  time 
who  used  sacred  names  much  more  freely  than  we 
are  willing  to  do.)  '  The  kingdom  of  heaven,' 
we  may  thus  say,  means  '  the  kingdom  of  God.' 
But  does  '  the  kingdom  of  Christ '  in  the  usage 
of  New  Testament  writers  mean  the  same  as 
'the  kingdom  of  God '  ?  and  is  either  of  the  phrases, 
or  are  both  of  them,  intended  to  describe  the 
Church?  There  is  a  difference,  in  thought  at 
least,  between  the  Church  of  Christ  and  the 
Church  of  God;  the  former  would  seem  to 
denote  more  clearly  the  present,  as  we  say 
actual,  Church,  and  the  latter  the  Church  as  it 
is  to  be,  or  (as  we  might  call  it)  the  ideal  Church. 
Can  we  make  this  distinction  in  the  double  use 
of  the  word  'kingdom'.?  Not  always,  I  am  sure; 
and  we  must  remember  that  St.  Paul  once 
speaks  of  the  "  kingdom  of  Christ  and  God."  * 
But  in  more  careful  phrase,  when  speaking  theo- 
logically, the  same  apostle  looks  forward,  after 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  the  first-fruits  and 
that  of  them  that  are  Christ's  at  His  appearing, 
•  Ephesians  v.  6 ;  tow  xP'O'toC  kuI  deov. 


72      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  sees  in  the  far  future  "  the  end"  when,  having 
brought  to  nought  all  adverse  powers,  "  He  shall 
deliver  the  kingdom  to  the  God  and  Father."  * 
There  is  evidently  in  his  mind  an  end  of  the  medi- 
atorial kingdom  as  such,  even  though  the  Son 
of  God  is  to  be  ever  the  Mediator;  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  is  to  become,  or  to  be  merged  in,  or 
to  find  its  new  place  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Perhaps  the  closing  visions  of  the  Apocalypse 
do  not  pierce  as  far  into  the  future  as  do  those 
which  inspired  the  opening  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Ephesians;  but  in  them  we  see  a  kingdom  of 
God  greater  than  the  city  which  is  the  Church. 
And  therefore  I  cannot  doubt  that  we  are  using 
scriptural  language  accurately  when  we  call  the 
Church  of  this  dispensation  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  but  reserve  the  term  kingdom  of  God 
for  that  which  is  awaiting  its  full  revelation  in 
another  age.  Be  this  as  it  may,  we  should 
all  confess  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  yet 
fully  manifested,  and  that  in  the  Church  there  is 
but  a  partial  or  preliminary  manifestation  of 
the  kingdom.  And  here  I  may  recall  what  was 
said  in  an  earlier  lecture  on  the  distinction 
between  the  universal  covenant  and  the  later 
election,  within  the  covenant  indeed  but  in 
important  ways  differing  from  it.  The  Incarna- 
tion renewed  and  confirmed  the  original  cove- 
nant, its  action  including  all  mankind  and  its 
*  I.  CoriniMans  xv.  24. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       73 

benefits  extending  potentially  to  all;  the  Church 
first  succeeded  to  the  special  election  and  in  a 
way  started  from  it;  but  it  extended  the  lines 
of  the  election  and  presently  opened  its  doors 
to  those  of  every  nation  who  should  hear  and 
accept  its  call.  The  Church,  that  is  to  say, 
is  a  covenant-election,  universal  in  scope,  and 
preparing  for  the  fulfilment  of  a  universal  cove- 
nant. It  may  be  that  the  meaning  of  all  this, 
not  fully  revealed  and  not  fully  to  be  under- 
stood as  yet,  will  be  made  clearer  for  us  as  we 
pass  on. 

2.  Into  the  Church  as  an  organization  there 
came  at  a  very  early  day  the  tradition  of  the 
Jewish  synagogue  and  the  influence  of  Roman 
law,  the  principles  of  a  theocracy  and  those  of 
a  commonwealth.  The  Jewish  tradition  was  of  a 
renewed  election;  but  the  influence  of  a  world- 
thought  had  entered  into  it,  proselytes  were 
by  what  we  should  call  naturalization  admitted 
into  the  nation  and  thus  into  the  company  of 
the  elect;  and  before  Christ  came  there  was 
also  a  large  body  of  men  who  feared  God  and  in 
that  fear  wrought  righteousness,  "  devout  men 
out  of  every  nation  under  heaven,"  *  who  were 
closely  connected  with  the  election  and  formed 
the  nucleus  of  a  kingdom.  The  Roman  world 
had  a  central  government,  with  its  colonies  and 
•  Acts  ii.  6. 


74      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

dependencies  and  subject  nations.  The  colonies 
were  not  like  those  of  Greece,  daughter  states 
which  had  drawn  their  life  from  mother  cities 
but  had  now  their  own  households  and  were  po- 
litically independent;  they — the  Roman  colo- 
nies— were  outposts  of  citizens  on  the  borders 
of  the  empire,  whose  home  and  political  rights 
were  in  the  imperial  city.  St.  Paul  was  a  visitor 
in  a  free  city  when  he  was  at  Ephesus;  but  he 
was  a  Roman  citizen  when  he  was  at  Philippi, 
with  the  same  rights  which  he  had  at  Rome  and 
under  the  same  duty  and  privilege  of  deman  ing 
and  exercising  them.  And  it  was  from  the  colony 
that  he  drew  the  lofty  exhortation  to  a  Chris- 
tian citizen's  duty:  "our  home-city,  ■^fiHv  to 
TToXirevfia,  is  in  heaven."  *  The  Church  entered 
into  this  preparation  of  the  law  and  progress 
of  the  world-empire,  as  she  took  for  her  own 
the  use  of  Roman  roads  and  of  the  Greek  language 
in  its  practically  universal  form,  while  she  entered 
into  the  good  results  of  the  theocratic  teaching 
of  the  Hebrew  people.  And  this  was  a  step, 
and  more  than  a  step,  towards  making  the 
kingdom  of  the  world  to  be  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  of  His  Christ. 

3.  Of  this  kingdom  of  the  Church  the  Incar- 
nate Lord  is  King.  The  nature  of  His  rule  had 
been  declared  by  holy  men  of  old,  who  told 
of  a  reign  of  righteousness  and  holiness  and  love. 

*Acts  xvi.  87;  Philippians  iii.  20. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       76 

It  had  the  authority  of  the  first-born,  for  was  He 
not  the  head  of  mankind  as  being  the  First- 
born among  many  brethren?  and  is  He  not, 
because  of  this,  for  each  of  us  the  next  of  kin 
to  represent  our  needs  and  maintain  our  cause? 
He  is  our  guide  and  our  shepherd,  for  a  true 
shepherd  is  a  real  king,  and  Dominus  regit  me 
rightly  represents  ' '  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd.' ' 
He  is  the  gentle  guide  and  master,  who  has  a 
boundless  influence  because  He  is  among  us  as 
He  that  serveth.  He  is  the  example  and  inspira- 
tion of  all  the  beatitudes  and  of  none  more 
strikingly  than  of  that  which  has  place  in  the 
Old  Testament  as  in  the  New,  "  Blessed  are  the 
meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  land."  *  His 
followers,  as  well  in  His  kindly  rule  as  in  the 
authority  of  His  influence,  are  those  who  fulfil 
a  ministry  the  very  beauty  and  simplicity  of 
which  enforces  the  following  of  His  character. 
And  His  subjects.  His  folk.  His  followers,  are 
by  rights  all  men;  ultimately  He  will  call  all  men 
to  His  obedience,  as  He  seeks  to  call  all  men  now; 
are  we  not  almost  bold  enough  to  say  that  at  the 
last  all  shall  be  His  glad  and  willing  subjects? 
"The  Lord  shall  be  King  over  all  the  earth;  in 
that  day  shall  the  Lord  be  one,  and  His  Name 
one";  "Every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  Lord."  t 

*  Psalm  xxxvii.  11;  Matthew  v.  5. 
t  Zechariah  xiv.  9 ;  Philippians  ii.  11. 


76      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

II 

1.  But  in  the  word  'kingdom'  there  is  not 
implied  everything  which  belongs  to  the  relation 
between  Christ  and  His  Church.  We  cannot 
keep  it  from  having  an  external  and  partly 
mechanical  suggestion;  it  is  after  all  a  word  of 
division.  We  find  for  it  a  complement,  at  least 
partial,  in  the  phrase  the  Body  of  Christ.  This 
use  of  the  word  did  not  originate  indeed  with 
any  of  the  New  Testament  writers;  but  we 
certainly  owe  its  distinct  and  full  application  to 
St.  Paul.  It  is  so  constantly  on  our  lips  to-day 
and  is  applied  to  so  many  organizations  or 
combinations  of  men  for  all  sorts  of  work  and 
pleasure,  that  it  requires  an  effort  for  us  to 
think  how  its  first  Christian  use  affected  the 
minds  of  those  who  heard  it.  The  thought 
must  have  grown  in  the  apostle's  soul;  but  its 
utterance  had  a  wonderful  power.  Every  one 
knew  that  a  human  being  has  a  body;  every 
believer  knew  that  Jesus  Christ  lived  in  a  body, 
that  that  body  was  put  to  death,  and  that  it 
belonged  to  faith  in  Him  to  confess  that  as  the 
risen  one  He  possesses  a  body  and  is  perfect 
Man.  Believers  in  Christ,  moreover,  believed 
and  were  sure  that  there  existed  a  Church  of 
living  men,  each  and  all  deriving  spiritual  life 
from  Him.  But  to  be  told  that  this  Church  was 
really    and    truly    Christ's    Body    to    which   He 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       77 

stood  in  the  relation  of  Head,  this  was  a  stupen- 
dous and  startling  declaration.  How  could  an 
organization  of  men  be  a  body?  How  could 
it  be  the  body  of  even  a  glorified  man?  When 
St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  in  declaring 
this  truth  he  assumed  it;  and  from  it  thus 
assumed  he  drew  lessons  which  were  needed  in 
the  distracted  Church  of  Corinth  and  emphasized 
principles  which  are  of  unending  application. 
When  not  many  years  later  he  wrote  the 
epistles  of  the  first  captivity,  he  had  meditated 
on  this  so  great  truth  and  knew  somewhat  more 
of  the  mystery  of  its  declaration  and  its  applica- 
tion. He  knew  now  that  Christ  the  glorified 
is  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church. 

2.  Thus  he  has  taught  us,  not  only  that  the 
Church  belongs  to  Christ,  but  that  it  is  His 
Body,  necessary  for  His  completion,  as  really 
as  He  is  necessary  for  its  completion.  It  is  less 
than  this,  though  by  no  means  a  little  matter, 
to  say  that  the  glorified  Christ  is  revealed  in  and 
by  the  Church;  and  it  is  one  function  of  a  body 
that  it  shall  make  the  person  known  and  that 
the  person  may  act  by  its  means.  The  body 
without  the  spirit  is  dead;  the  spirit  without 
the  body  is,  in  the  present  order  of  things, 
greatly  limited  in  its  expression;  but  the  body 
of  man  is  not  needed  for  the  spirit's  life,  as  is 
evident  from  many  well-known  facts.     The  In- 


78      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

carnate  Son  of  God,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  so 
we  are  taught,  is  not  complete  without  His 
Body,  the  Church;  He  is  completed  or  rather 
to  be  completed  by  it. 

This  points  to  a  part  or  aspect  of  truth  which 
it  is  hard  to  state  without  seeming  to  deny 
other  truth,  namely,  that  there  is  a  progress  in 
the  Incarnation  dependent  upon  the  progress 
in  the  human  nature  which  the  Son  of  God  as- 
sumed. Its  fulness  is  the  union  of  perfect 
God  with  perfect  man.  The  perfectness  of  the 
Godhead  is  absolute;  but  manhood  is  not  perfect 
until,  in  a  real  human  way  yet  apart  from  sin, 
it  has  passed  through  the  stages  of  childhood 
and  youth  and  opening  manhood,  having  been 
at  each  tried  by  the  trial  peculiar  to  it.  Nay, 
we  see  that  even  manhood  is  not  in  itself  perfect; 
the  Son  of  God  must  pass  through  the  experiences 
of  a  fallen  race — for  such  He  came  to  redeem — 
must  meet  death  and  overcome  it  and  in  the  glory 
of  victory  must  return  to  the  Father.  He  that 
ascended  is  the  same  Person  who  came  down  from 
heaven  and  was  incarnate  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
of  the  Virgin  Mary;  but  He  has  carried  to  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father  that  humanity  which 
He  took,  perfected  by  growth  and  trial  and  the 
varied  experiences  of  life  and  by  passing  through 
death,  marvellously  enriched,  and  in  His  rela- 
tion to  God — for  we  must  not  omit  this — with 
a   power    of   intercession   great   above    all  that 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       79 

we  can  ask  or  think.  But  His  humanity,  so  we 
are  learning,  was  not  perfect  even  at  the  ascen- 
sion and  the  session.  His  Body  must  be  more 
than  that  in  which  He  lived  and  suffered,  died 
and  rose  again;  His  Body  must  be  the  living 
company  of  those  who  through  His  Spirit  believe 
in  Him  and  are  inspired  by  His  life;  His  Body 
must  be  the  Church,  the  company  of  all  the  elect. 
When,  ascending  up  on  high,  He  gave  His  great 
gift  to  men  in  the  marvellous  beginning  of  the 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  His  Church  was  born, 
its  body  men,  its  life  the  Holy  Ghost.  And 
now  through  the  ages  that  body  has  had  the  ex- 
periences of  childhood  and  youth  and  vigorous 
age — yes,  and  sometimes  of  an  apparent  decrepi- 
tude— and  those  not  without  sin,  delaying  the 
growth  and  weakening  the  power  and  hinder- 
ing the  progress  towards  perfection.  But  this 
experience  has  been  and  is  necessary  that  the 
Lord's  Body  shall  reach  its  perfection,  shall 
come  to  a  full-growTi  man,  even  to  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  to  which  the  Lord 
Himself  has  already  attained.  In  this  I  think 
that  we  can  in  part  see  what  is  meant  by  the 
Lord's  'expecting,'  by  the  necessity  that  He 
the  Incarnate  Son  shall  sit  as  King  until  He 
has  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet.  And  as  He 
waits,  the  Church  waits  for  her  perfection,  till 
every  part  and  member  being  fully  grown  and 
furnished,  the  Incarnation  shall  be  accomplished 


80      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

in  a  perfect  mystical  body,  and  the  Lord  with 
His  whole  elect  body  completely  furnished  and 
co-operant  shall  be  prepared  to  give  to  it  its 
share  with  Himself  in  the  new  covenant  in  which 
all  things  shall  be  made  His  and  fulfil  His  great 
purpose. 

3.  In  the  light  of  what  has  been  said  and  sug- 
gested we  may  look  at  our  text;  a  very  literal 
translation  will  be  awkward,  but  it  will  help 
us  to  find  its  meaning.  And  let  me  say  that 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  present  participle 
•rrXripovfievov  is  either  passive  or  a  true  middle. 
"  God,"  St.  Paul  tells  us,  "  set  the  risen  and 
ascended  Christ  as  Head  over  the  universe 
for  the  Church;  the  Church,  I  say,  seeing  that 
it  is  His  body,  the  completion  of  Him  who  is 
approaching  completeness  universally  in  the 
universe";  or  we  may  paraphase  a  little  with  a 
recent  commentator,  and  say,  "who  is  moving 
towards  a  completeness  absolute  and  all-inclu- 
sive." Christ,  glorified  in  His  own  humanity, 
still  needs  completion;  and  His  completion 
depends  on  the  completion  and  perfectness  of 
His  Church,  in  which  He  is  moving  on  to  that 
perfectness  of  Himself  which  cannot  otherwise 
be  attained.  In  the  light  of  these  words  read  the 
history  of  the  Church;  in  their  light  study  its 
present  condition;  inquire  into  its  aims  and  its 
designs;    ask  as  to  the  loftiness  of  its  worship, 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       81 

the  holiness  and  thoroughness  of  its  revela- 
tions, the  clearness  of  its  teaching  of  duty; 
weigh  in  the  scales  of  God's  purposes  the  wishes 
and  hopes  which  are  leading  the  Church  in  a 
great  part  of  her  activity;  compare  that  which 
we  see  or  know  or  infer  as  to  the  desires  of  the 
members  of  the  Church  for  her  progress  with 
the  Lord's  great  desire  for  her  spiritual  perfec- 
tion and  her  fitness  for  yet  greater  growth  and 
greater  aptitudes;  and  say  if  we  do  as  yet  much 
better  understand  the  ascended  Lord  than  they 
understood  Him  among  whom  He  walked  in 
Galilee  or  in  Judaea.  But  again  see  how  the 
lofty  ideal,  often  unexpressed  and  sometimes 
but  partially  understood,  is  transfiguring  the 
lives  of  those  who  worship  because  they  believe 
and  who  know  the  Incarnate  Son  as  the  Lord 
of  their  lives;  whose  hope  is  in  His  presence  and 
in  whom  His  body  is  approaching  its  perfection; 
and  thank  God  for  the  life  thus  manifested 
and  thus  leading  to  the  absolute  completeness 
that  shall  be  in  His  Son. 

Ill 

L  But  we  must  not  forget  that  another 
metaphor  under  which  the  Church  is  sometimes 
described  is  that  of  a  building.  "  Ye  are,"  says 
the  Apostle  in  this  very  wTiting,  the  thought 
of  which  we  are  seeking  in  some  wise  to  follow, 
"built  up  upon  the  foundation  of  apostles  and 


82      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

prophets";  and  presently  he  turns  the  figure 
from  words  descriptive  of  citizenship  and  of 
membership  in  a  household  to  words  that  tell 
of  a  growing  edifice;  "ye  are  in  process  of 
building  together  into  an  habitation  of  God."  * 
Also  in  another  epistle,  confusing  his  metaphors 
as  it  would  seem  by  intention,  he  bids  Christians 
to  make  sure  that  they  have  been  rooted  as  a 
tree  and  are  in  process  of  being  built  up  as  an 
edifice  in  Christ.  The  temple  grew  in  its  erection, 
that  it  might  be  the  home  of  the  God  to  Whom 
men  felt  that  their  worship  was  due;  the  tree 
grows  from  that  which  its  roots  and  its  leaves 
take  from  the  earth  and  the  air;  it  needs  to 
be  firmly  and  wisely  rooted  that  it  may  keep  its 
place,  and  its  leaves  and  its  fruit  are  for  pleasure 
and  for  sustenance.  It  teaches  us  the  value  and 
the  necessity  of  that  natural  growth  in  which 
the  earth  bringeth  forth  fruit  of  herself;  and 
bids  us  trust  Him  Who  though  others  plant  and 
water  yet  Himself  alone  giveth  the  increase. 

2.  But  in  the  erection  of  a  building  beams  and 
stones  are  brought  and  made  read}'  for  their 
position;  sometimes,  as  in  Solomon's  temple,  each 
being  squared  and  cut  to  measure,  so  that  it 
needs  only  to  be  lifted  up  and  set  in  the  destined 
place,  and  sometimes  the  rough  material  being 
hewed  and  cut  on  the  site  and  with  blows  fitted 
•  Ephesians  ii.  20,  22. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       83 

into  correspondence  with  what  has  been  already 
built.  It  needs  this  other  metaphor  to  fill  out 
that  of  the  kingdom  and  that  of  the  body;  for 
in  it  we  are  bidden  to  see  that  Christ  accepts 
for  His  Church  that  which  men  may  bring  to 
it;  whether  its  value  be  in  itself  great  or  little, 
yet  if  given  to  Him  is  it  acceptable.  Even  hay 
and  stubble  may  be  of  some  use,  perhaps  for 
packing  or  to  kindle  fire,  as  St.  Paul  seems  to 
say,  as  well  as  marbles  and  wood  for  the  struc- 
ture or  gold  and  silver  for  the  adornment; 
some  will  endure  and  some  will  be  used  up, 
but  each  one  who  has  brought  anything  will 
find  that  it  has  been  accepted.*  We  may  think 
of  the  contribution  which  divers  ages  one  after 
another  have  brought  to  the  temple  of  Christ, 
the  simple  teaching  of  apologists,  the  subtle 
arguments  of  philosophic  theologians,  the  masters 
of  disputes,  the  logical  teachers,  those  who  have 
looked  deep  into  truth  and  those  who  have 
written  of  the  wide  extent  of  duty,  those  who 
have  seen  the  need  of  reformation  and  those  who 
have  held  back  the  deforming  arm,  those  who 
have  taught  in  books  of  wisdom  and  those 
whose  lives  have  been  an  example  and  help; 
children,  young  men  and  maidens,  men  and 
women  of  vigorous  years,  the  aged  saints  pausing 
on  the  verge  of  another  land;  each  has  brought 
something,  each  is  bringing  something  which 
•  I.  Corinthians  i.  12-15. 


84      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

shall  do  honor  as  it  declares  the  much  variegated 
wisdom  of  God.  And  the  purpose  of  it  all  is 
that  God  may  dwell  among  His  people;  that 
as  in  cities  and  villages,  where  the  abodes  of  men 
are  prepared  for  companies  and  families  and 
individuals,  God  has  a  house  set  apart  for  His 
own,  that  men  may  find  Him  there  ani  may 
never  forget  that  He  is  not  far  from  them,  so 
the  Church  of  God,  the  congregation  of  believing 
men,  may  be  known  to  be  among  men  and  may 
challenge  their  loyalty  and  their  dedication  of 
themselves,  of  their  work,  and  of  their  substance. 

3.  Thus,  before  passing  on  to  consider  the  order 
and  orderliness  to  which  the  Church  witnesses 
as  specially  belonging  to  itself,  we  may  sum  up 
that  which  has  been  specially  learned  in  study- 
ing its  constitution.  As  it  is  a  kingdom,  it 
tells  of  law  and  duty  and  of  the  perfections  of 
the  King:  as  it  is  a  body,  it  declares  to  us  truth 
and  reality  and  life,  a  life  growing  towards 
universal  perfection;  as  it  is  a  building,  it  reminds 
us  of  God's  dwelling  among  His  people  and  of 
our  call  to  worship  him.  Duty,  life,  worship — 
each  is  exercised  under  rule,  the  rule  of  its  nature 
because  it  is  the  law  of  perfection,  a  rule  which, 
because  it  is  perfect,  must  manifest  itself  in 
progress. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       86 


IV 

1.  But  it  belongs  to  us  at  this  time  to  treat 
not  only  of  the  constituting,  but  also  of  the 
ordering  of  the  Church.  It  is  especially,  as  I 
think,  in  this  ordering  or  orderliness  or  order 
that  we  are  to  look  for  the  directing  power  of 
the  Spirit,  who  is  not  only  the  Spirit  of  life  and 
of  vigor,  but  also  the  Spirit  of  order  and  of  beauty. 
And  order  is  a  later  gift  than  life,  as  true  beauty 
depends  on  the  operation  of  vigor  in  a  well- 
framed  body.  We  need  not  be  at  all  surprised 
if  we  do  not  find  it  distinctly  and  universally 
shown  till  a  time  somewhat  later  than  that  of 
the  New  Testament.  A  kingdom  may  be  securely 
founded  before  men  know  in  what  precise  way 
it  can  be  best  administered;  a  body  may  be  well 
shaped  and  harmonious  before  we  can  tell  how 
its  activities  can  be  best  directed;  a  building 
may  be  well  designed  before  we  can  decide  what 
care  should  be  exercised  for  its  maintenance  and 
usefulness.  All  true  order  is  due  to  growth, 
and  growth  is  determined  by  many  influences; 
all  permanent  order  comes  from  that  which  was 
tentative  and  possibly  thought  to  be  temporary. 
And  this  is  especially  true  in  cases  where  experi- 
ence can  give  but  little  help,  or  where  the  lessons 
of  experience  are  far-fetched  and  cannot  be 
directly  employed.  But  when  the  growth  is 
healthy  and  orderly,  then  it  is  possible  to  trace 


86      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

back  the  results  to  principles  and  powers  which 
were  in  operation,  and  to  see  that  the  results, 
with  the  laws  of  future  activity,  could  not  have 
been  other  than  they  are.  The  critical  period 
of  the  history  of  this  country  was  the  years 
between  the  close  of  the  Revolution  with  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  thirteen 
colonies  and  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  Federal  Union.  The  wisest  of  those  who 
were  responsible  for  shaping  the  polity  and  the 
policy  of  the  country  could  not  have  intended 
or  even  foreseen  more  than  the  general  principles 
of  that  Constitution;  but  looking  back  from  its 
adoption  we  can  see  how  it  must  have  been  in 
all  important  matters  that  which  in  point  of 
fact  it  was  and  is.  If  such  is  the  working  of  the 
minds  of  earnest  men  who  feel  their  respon- 
sibility, we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  in 
like  manner  the  Spirit  of  God,  working  of  neces- 
sity through  men,  guided  the  ordering  of  the 
Church.  Its  critical  period,  to  use  the  familiar 
phrase,  was  from  the  time  of  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit  to  the  time  when  she  found  herself  organ- 
ized throughout  the  world  on  the  same  plan 
and  under  the  same  form  of  what  we  may  call 
mon-episcopal  government.  It  is  not  only  the  re- 
sult, but  the  naturalness  and  absolute  uniformity 
of  the  result,  that  convinces  us  of  the  Spirit's 
power  and  working.  While  the  Apostles — those 
to  whom  for  their  work's  sake  we  restrict  the 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       87 

name — were  still  active,  with  their  practically 
universal  mission  and  the  honor  of  their  im- 
mediate appointment  by  the  Master,  it  was  not 
possible  to  say  what  provision  would  be  made 
for  continuity  or  change  when  their  work  should 
cease.  Perhaps  St.  James  at  Jerusalem  had 
practically  established  a  diocesan  order,  the 
episcopate  to  remain  as  long  as  possible  with 
the  kindred  of  the  Lord;  St,  Paul  in  his  old 
age  commissioned  at  least  two  men  to  do  quasi- 
apostolic  duties  and  carry  quasi-apostolic  re- 
sponsibilities with  the  thought  that  these  were  to 
be  continued;  and  we  have  a  historic  tradition, 
which  only  lacks  canonical  authority,  that  St. 
John,  twenty  years  or  more  later,  was  guiding 
the  Church  of  Asia  Minor  and  from  it  the 
Christian  world  into  the  organization  which  it 
presently  accepted  as  of  the  Spirit's  ordering. 
There  is  no  intimation  that  the  Church  of  that 
early  day  was  surprised  to  find  herself  Episcopal 
in  her  order.  Perhaps  at  different  places  she 
would  have  traced  back  her  organization  in 
different  ways  to  the  Apostles  and  through  them 
to  the  Master;  but  she  seems  to  have  felt  per- 
fectly sure  that  she  had  been  led  by  the  Spirit  and 
was  in  the  path  which  the  Spirit  had  marked 
out  for  her. 

2.  The  result,  as  I  said,  was  the  same;   and  in 
point  of  fact,  as  we  study  the  New  Testament 


88      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

closely,  we  can  see  that  preparation  was  making 
for  it  in  the  time  of  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles, 
and  that  nothing  else  could  naturally  have  taken 
up  all  into  which  apostles  and  apostolic  men 
had  been  leading  the  Church  in  divers  lands  and 
countries.  The  suggestion  of  a  "  tunnel  period," 
with  the  amount  of  material  which  we  have  at 
hand,  not  large  indeed  but  varied  and  sufficiently 
clear  in  its  testimony,  cannot  be  seriously  accepted. 
The  roof  has  been  taken  off  the  tunnel,  some 
light  reaches  the  travellers  and  enables  the  by- 
standers to  watch  their  progress,  and  the  train 
comes  out  into  a  somewhat  different  landscape 
and  moves  on  somewhat  more  rapidly  in  the 
same  direction  in  which  it  was  moving  before. 
The  Ignatian  epistles  show  for  the  Churches  of 
Asia  the  organized  form  of  ministry  in  its  earlier 
stages,  of  which  we  learn  from  at  least  two  of 
the  New  Testament  books;  and,  though  less 
distinctly,  we  can  see  a  like  progress  with  a  like 
result  in  other  parts  of  the  Christian  world. 
And  if  all  this  was,  as  we  are  confident,  the  result 
of  the  Spirit's  working,  we  shall  not  wonder  that, 
with  practically  identical  results,  men's  theories 
and  explanations  of  it  have  not  been  every- 
where or  at  all  times  the  same;  we  should  rather 
expect  that  the  exact  definitions  of  titles  and 
assignments  of  duties  and  limitations  of  powers 
could  not  always  agree.  The  Church  of  the  East 
considers  the  bishops  as  forming  an  order  superior 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       89 

to  that  of  priests;  the  Church  of  Rome  does 
not  count  them  a  separate  order,  while  yet  she 
restricts  to  them  the  power  of  ordination;  at 
Carthage  it  was  taught  that  each  bishop  is  the 
successor  of  all  the  apostles;  across  the  Mediter- 
ranean the  emphasis  was  laid  on  one  apostle 
as  the  source  of  authority.  But  the  result, 
however  effected  in  all  the  centuries  of  diversity 
of  times,  places,  and  men's  manners,  has  been, 
as  I  said,  the  same;  and  it  moves  our  wonder 
and  confirms  our  faith  in  the  guidance  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  that  the  power  of  varied  life 
should  have  worked  out,  as  if  of  very  necessity, 
the  same  general  system  of  Church  adminis- 
tration throughout  the  world.  Abnormalities 
doubtless  there  have  been,  some  remaining 
from  the  early  days,  some  arising  from  time  to 
time;  but  they  have  not  belonged  to  the  body 
and  they  have  been  sloughed  off  with  little  or 
no  diflBculty. 

3.  We  may  well  pause  here  to  recall  in  the 
Apostle's  words  what  was  the  purpose  for  which 
the  ascended  Lord  placed  in  His  Church  some 
to  be  apostles  and  some  prophets  and  some  evan- 
gelists and  some  pastors  and  teachers.  (The 
words  are  in  a  lofty  strain  of  poetry,  but  they 
do  imply  that  at  Ephesus,  then  the  apostolic 
centre,  there  were  four  orders  of  ministers,  the 
fourth    including    two    distinct    classes.     A    few 


90      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

years  later,  in  his  practical  epistle  to  Timothy, 
the  Apostle  puts  the  matter  somewhat  differ- 
ently, but  we  can  see  that  the  change  was  due 
to  a  perfectly  healthy  growth.)  That  purpose 
was  not  to  train  some  men  to  places  of  honor 
and  power,  however  worthy  they  might  seem  to 
be;  it  was  not  to  bid  others  to  be  in  subjection 
to  them,  however  much  they  might  need  to 
practise  obedience  and  endure  restraint;  it  was 
with  a  view  to  the  perfection  of  saints,  and 
that  unto  a  work  of  ministration,  unto  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  body  of  Christ;  and  its  limit  was  to 
be,  what  to  men  seems  the  unattainable,  how- 
ever much  progress  may  be  made  towards  it, 
until  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith 
and  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  completely  grown-up  man,  unto  a  measure 
of  full  age  of  that  which  fulfils  Christ.  The 
appointment  of  divers  orders  in  the  Church 
was  then  intended  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints, 
of  those  who  had  been  called  to  holiness  and  in 
whom  some  progress  towards  that  holiness  had 
been  made;  it  was  that  apostles  and  prophets 
and  others,  however  lofty  their  titles  might 
sound,  should  do  a  work  of  subordinate  service, 
"  deacon's  work,"  and  should  build  up — for  so 
reads  the  double  metaphor — Christ's  body;  but 
their  aim  should  be  unity  in  belief  in  the  Incar- 
nate Son  and  in  real  knowledge  of  Him,  the 
growth  of  the  Church,  and  imphedly  of  its  sev- 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       91 

eral  members,  unto  full  manhood,  to  that  which 
can  be  measured  by  nought  less  than  Christ's 
perfectness,  because  it  is  to  be  that  by  which 
the  Incarnate  One  shall  Himself  be  completed 
as  the  Head  of  the  Church,  of  mankind,  of  the 
whole  creation.  Words  like  these,  and  doubt- 
less based  on  these,  have  been  put  on  the  lips 
of  the  Bishop  at  every  Anglican  ordination  to 
the  priesthood  for  more  than  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years;  they  abide  in  the  memory  of  some  of 
us,  they  will  reach  others  of  us  in  the  most  solemn 
hour  of  our  lives: 

*'  Consider  with  yourselves  the  end  of  the  Minis- 
try towards  the  children  of  God,  towards  the 
Spouse  and  Body  of  Christ;  and  see  that  ye 
never  cease  your  labour,  your  care  and  diligence, 
until  ye  have  done  all  that  lieth  in  you,  according 
to  your  bounden  duty,  to  bring  all  such  as  are 
or  shall  be  committed  to  your  charge,  unto  that 
agreement  in  the  faith  and  knowledge  of  God, 
and  to  that  ripeness  and  perfectness  of  age  in 
Christ,  that  there  be  no  place  left  among  you, 
either  for  error  in  religion  or  for  viciousness  in 
life."  It  is  a  lofty  exhortation;  see  to  it,  my 
young  brothers,  that  you  take  it  with  all  serious- 
ness. 

V 

There  is  very  little  question  to-day  among 
diligent  readers  of  Holy  Scripture  and  sacred 
authors  that  from  the  Apostles'   time— or  cer- 


92      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

tainly  from  a  time  close  following  on  the  death 
of  the  last  of  the  Twelve — there  have  been  these 
Orders  of  Ministers  in  Christ's  Church;  Bishops, 
Priests,  and  Deacons.  And  not  many  scholars 
would  doubt  that  this  three-fold  ministry  in  what 
is  called  the  mon-episcopal  form  was  thus  early 
accepted  by  the  Church  because  the  Church 
believed  that  she  was  guided  by  the  Spirit  to 
accept  it,  and  was  continued  in  the  Church  be- 
cause the  Church  believed  that  it  was  the  will 
of  the  Spirit  to  continue  it.  But  in  our  time, 
a  considerable  part  of  believers  in  Christ  in  this 
land  and  in  our  mother-country  and  among 
other  nations  with  which  we  have  most  to  do, 
holding  to  the  fact  and  the  necessity  of  a  Church 
and  the  duty  of  men  to  enter  its  membership, 
are  not  continuing  what  we  call  the  Apostolic 
Ministry,  some  not  acknowledging  its  necessitj^* 
others  doubting  its  desirability,  perhaps  some, 
like  Scottish  Presbyterians  of  old,  thinking  it 
in  direct  (though  long-continued)  contravention 
of  Christ's  ordinance.  We  cannot  avoid,  then, 
putting  to  ourselves  the  question.  Is  the  three- 
fold ministry  of  what  we  call  Episcopal  regimen 
a  necessary  part  of  the  Church's  historic  order? 
Our  answer  here  must  be  brief  and  briefly  de- 
fended. 

1.  It  is  without  doubt  a  question  beset  with 
diflBculties,  at  least  in  these  parts  of  the  world 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       93 

and  at  this  time.  These  diflSculties  are  theo- 
logical and  historical  and  practical  and  personal; 
and  some  of  them,  though  real,  are  not  easily 
stated.  We  cannot  argue  with  good  men  of  non- 
episcopal  bodies  as  if  they  were  at  this  moment 
separating  from  the  historic  order  of  the  Church; 
the  order  which  some  of  them  have  is  for  them 
sufficiently  historic  and  has  for  them  a  pre- 
sumption in  its  favor.  Some  there  are  who  say 
that  the  separation  of  their  spiritual  ancestors 
from  the  historic  order  of  the  Church  of  western 
Christendom  was  due  to  the  fact  they  were  forced 
to  make  the  choice  between  denying  the  ancient 
faith  and  withdrawing  from  the  ancient  organiza- 
tion. Some,  without  doubt,  consider  the  whole 
question  as  to  ministerial  authority  a  matter 
of  indifiFerence,  and  do  not  believe  that  the 
Church  of  the  sixteenth  century  can  be  bound 
by  the  decisions  and  practices  of  the  fourth 
century  or  even  of  the  first.  The  question 
calls  for  much  patience  and  carefulness  in  an- 
swering. 

2.  The  fact  of  the  case  is  that  the  Church  found 
itself  Episcopal  and  accepted  that  fact  as  God's 
ordering  through  the  Spirit.  '  Episcopal,'  if 
they  used  the  word,  or  at  any  rate  their  equiva- 
lent for  the  word,  did  not  mean  exactly  the 
same  thing  at  every  place  and  in  every  age, 
as  we  have  already  confessed.     And  that  which 


94      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHIT^CH 

it  did  denote  changed  from  time  to  time  by 
some  kind  of  a  development  directed  by  powers, 
political  and  personal,  from  without;  and  this 
development  was  thought  of  or  treated  as  a 
divinely  directed  growth.  But  while  there  may 
be  a  development  in  the  externals  of  the  ministry 
of  the  Church,  the  ministry  is  not  in  itself  an 
evolution,  a  growth  upward,  a  change  from  the 
homogenous  to  the  heterogenous:  it  is  a  devolu- 
tion, a  handing  down  of  authority  and  duty 
from  the  one  Source  of  authority  and  duty. 
Christians  did  not  in  the  very  earliest  days  elect 
or  even  decide  to  recognize  the  apostles;  nor  did 
they  a  httle  later  authorize  chosen  men  among 
themselves  to  be  the  elders  of  their  congrega- 
tions and  to  minister  to  them  in  the  Word  and 
the  Sacraments;  they  nominated,  indeed,  at 
the  call  of  apostles,  or  devout  men  feeling  that 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  offered 
themselves  for  sacred  service;  but  it  was  apostles 
or  apostoHc  men  who  laid  hands  on  them,  bestowed 
on  them  the  Spirit  in  His  special  gifts  for  their 
oflSce,  and  gave  them  their  '  character '  with  all 
that  it  implies.  The  principle  on  which  any  other 
than  the  historic  order  is  based,  apart  from  the 
consideration  of  absolute  necessity,  is  the  earthly 
principle  of  evolution;  this  belongs  to  a  large 
part  of  creation  and  a  large  part  of  God's  dealings 
with  men,  but  is  it  inapplicable  to  the  things 
of    the    Spirit.     They    are    the    glorified    Lord's 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       95 

gifts  in  their  fulness;  He  gave  some  to  be  apostles 
at  the  first;  those  whom  He  had  trained  indeed 
in  a  very  special  way  and  made  vessels  meet 
for  His  service,  but  who  were  then  sent  by  Him 
even  as  He  Himself  had  been  sanctified  and 
then  sent  into  the  world.  And  all  ministerial- 
priesthood  authority  in  the  Church  must  come 
in  the  self -same  way  from  the  Apostles  by  descent; 
men  do  not  grow  up  to  it;  it  comes  not  from  the 
Body,  but  from  the  Head.  And  herein  we  may 
see,  I  think,  the  serious  error  of  those  who  do 
not  look  for  that  authority,  fully  though  they 
may  believe  that  God  bids  them  offer  themselves 
for  it,  in  the  line  of  descent  to  which  the  historic 
Church  holds. 

3.  Some  will  ask  very  seriously  whether  that 
can  be  held  to  be  binding  or  of  obligation,  which 
is  not  expressly  contained  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  cannot  be  proved  by  the  Scriptures  alone, 
but  is  learned  from  the  experience  of  the  Church 
in  early  apostolic  times.  I  think  that  this  con- 
sideration does  make  entirely  tenable  either  of 
two  ways  of  stating  the  doctrine  of  the  historic 
episcopate:  the  one — which  I  may  be  allowed 
to  say  is  my  own  conviction — that  the  order 
for  which  the  Church  of  the  New  Testament 
age  prepared  the  way  and  which  followed  uni- 
versally at  the  close  of  that  age  was  the  matter 
of  a  true  revelation  from  the  Spirit  and  should 


96      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

be  received  as  such;  the  other,  that  while  there 
is  not  that  proof  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Epis- 
copate which  we  have  (let  us  say)  of  the  deity 
of  Christ,  it  was  yet  given  to  the  Church  to  see 
at  a  very  early  day  that  this  is  the  best  form 
of  her  organization  and  that  it  is  as  such  destined 
for  continuance.  Either  statement  fully  recog- 
nizes the  Spirit's  authority  and  the  Church's 
obligation  at  first  to  accept  and  after  that  to  con- 
tinue it. 

4.  And  in  this  matter  the  possibility  of  change 
— not,  of  course,  of  the  modification  of  external 
accessories — is  greater  than  the  possibility  of 
failure.  What  has  failed,  and  has  led  to  dis- 
astrous results  the  evil  of  which  cannot  be  cured 
for  centuries  to  come,  has  been  the  demand  on 
the  one  hand  that  ministry  shall  not  be  priestly 
and  on  the  other  hand  that  priesthood  shall  not 
condescend  to  be  ministerial.  Those  who  insist 
that  the  true  pastor  cannot  be  the  dispenser  of 
grace  through  appointed  ordinances,  that  there 
is  such  power  in  the  ministry  of  the  Word  that 
the  Sacraments  are  stripped  of  any  special 
power,  who  do  not  see  that  the  great  need  of 
mediatorship  is  in  all  life  and  that  in  all  life 
provision  is  made  for  it,  and  that  the  whole 
scheme  of  redemption,  the  whole  purpose  of  the 
Church,  demands  it  in  its  highest  measure — 
for  them  the  thought  and  even  the  mention  of 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       97 

priesthood  is  repellent.  And  those  who  have 
acted  as  if  priesthood  meant  the  privilege  of 
arrogance  and  of  absolute  use  of  power,  as 
if  it  were  an  excuse  for  neglect  of  the  pastoral 
and  prophetic  duties,  as  if  it  set  a  man  over  the 
Church  as  an  overseer  instead  of  in  the  Church 
as  a  watchman,  they  have  done  much  to  make 
the  thought  and  the  mention  of  priesthood  an 
offence  to  God's  people.  Neither  of  these  finds 
excuse  in  the  life  and  teaching  of  the  great  Priest 
and  Bishop  and  Pastor;  the  faults  of  neither 
should  be  charged  to  a  system  which  by  example 
and  precept  is  guarded  against  it;  the  history 
of  the  Church  shows  how^  the  helpful  men,  the 
Christlike  men,  the  men  from  whom  the  Spirit 
goes  forth  are  those  who  are  pastors  and  priests, 
who  are  conscious  that  they  bear  the  Lord's 
authority  and  forget  not  that  they  must  use  it 
for  humble  ministration  to  His  people. 

5.  The  question  then  is  put  to  us,  Is  no  minis- 
tration of  Word  or  Sacrament  valid,  unless  it 
comes  from  one  who  has  the  succession  of  the 
historic  episcopate.'^  We  may,  without  offence, 
allow  that  there  has  always  been  a  place  for  lay- 
preaching  in  the  Church;  the  question  of  lay- 
baptism  w^e  may  leave  until  the  next  lecture; 
and  the  question  then  becomes.  Can  no  one  ex- 
cept a  priest  ordained  by  a  bishop  in  the  his- 
toric   succession    pronounce    a    valid    absolution 


98      THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

or  celebrate  a  valid  eucharist?  The  word  '  valid  ' 
troubles  us;  to  the  legal  mind  of  the  West  it  has 
come  to  imply  that  that  to  which  it  is  applied 
is  the  only  means  or  channel  by  which  it  is 
possible  to  receive  the  desired  spiritual  gift;  and 
then  the  rigid  masters  of  law  have  seen  a  way 
to  save  the  law  and  avoid  its  strictness  by  con- 
tending that  an  action  evidently  irregular  may 
not  be  inefficacious  or  'invalid.'  To  the  thought 
of  the  Eastern  Christians,  if  I  understand  aright, 
there  is  no  real  difference  between  '  valid  '  and 
*  regular';  everything  irregular  is  also  'invalid'; 
but  they  find  in  the  Church  a  power  of  oeconomy, 
by  which  it  can  make  up  for  defects  in  the  manner 
or  the  substance  of  intended  official  acts.  Either 
of  these  but  complicates  the  question,  and  makes 
the  puzzle  harder  to  solve.  But  take  the  sensible 
definition  that  that  is  *  valid '  which  has  the 
authority  of  the  covenant,  and  our  duty  of 
action,  necessarily  guided  by  our  conviction  of 
the  covenant,  is  perfectly  plain.  It  is  not  for 
us  to  say  what  God  may  give  to  those  who  in 
faith  seek  His  grace  in  ways  which  the  historic 
Church  does  not  find  provided  in  the  covenant 
which  she  has  accepted.  Not  arrogantly,  but 
confidently,  she  asks  for  the  old  paths;  and  she 
finds  rest  for  the  souls  of  her  people. 

Thus  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  and  to  wit- 
ness as  that  which  I  read  of  the  Church's  testi- 
mony  to   herself   in    this   matter,    that   neither 


CONSTITUTION  AND  ORDERING       99 

the  Church  in  her  entirety,  nor  any  part  of  the 
Church  which  would  keep  in  full  communion 
with  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  earliest  days, 
is  duly  furnished  for  truth  and  grace  without 
the  historic  episcopate,  the  three-fold  ministry 
derived  by  bishops  from  the  Apostles. 

We  have  of  necessity  traversed  a  wide  range  of 
theology  as  we  have  this  evening  studied  in  some 
detail  the  Constitution  and  Ordering  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  At  least  let  it  have  been  of  this  service 
to  us,  that  we  have  been  reminded  that  the  Church 
is  really  the  Body  of  the  Incarnate  Lord  in  His 
glory,  and  that  in  her  He  is  even  yet  moving 
towards  absolute  completeness:  and  that  the 
purpose  of  the  ordering  of  the  Church  is  that 
it  may  be  possible  for  her— wondrous  truth!— 
to  hasten  and  accomplish  His  perfection. 


Lecture  IV 
LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP 

Ephesians  i.  13,  14. 

^i*  <p  Kal  vfieii  oiKovffavTes,  .  .  iv  <f  Kal  TriffTeicravTei,  ifftppaylffBijre  T(p 
irvei/MTi  T^s  iirayyeXlas  r^  ayltp. 

"In  Whom  ye  also,  when  ye  had  heard  ...  in  Whom 
also,  when  ye  had  believed  [become  believers],  ye  were  sealed 
with  the  Spirit  of  the  promise,  the  Holy  one." 

It  is  impossible,  in  a  series  of  Lectures  such 
as  the  present  is  intended  to  be,  to  avoid  some 
repetition,  if  not  in  the  topics  as  they  succeed 
each  other  yet  certainly  in  the  thoughts  sug- 
gested by  them.  The  subject  of  all  is  really 
one,  but  it  presents  itself  to  us  to  be  studied 
under  varied  aspects.  These  are  of  necessity 
partial  and  present  some  contrasts;  but  from 
them  there  comes  the  harmony  which  can  never 
be  reached  by  eye  or  ear  or  mind  except  in  a 
combination  of  visions  or  messages  or  thoughts. 
We  come  this  evening  to  a  consideration,  first 
of  the  Life  and  then  of  the  Membership — which 
is  the  participation  in  the  Life — of  the  Church 
of  God. 

100 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  101 


I 
1.  The  Church's  life  is  that  of  a  body,  the  Body 
of   Christ;    and   it  must   Hve,   because   a  body 
discharging  the  functions  of  a  body  must  Hve. 
We  can  indeed  speak  of  the  Hfe  of  a  kingdom 
or  the  life  of  a  building;    but  in  either  case  the 
use  of  the  word  is  by  way  of  metaphor,  and  that 
a  metaphor  differently  applied  in  the  two  cases. 
A  kingdom    lives,   while  it    continues   in  exist- 
ence;   and  its  continued  existence  in  a  way  de- 
mands progress   (not  necessarily  extension)   and 
improvement.     A    building    lives    while    it    sub- 
serves its  purpose  of  providing  the  kind  of  shelter 
and  kindred  service  for  which  it  was  intended. 
A   body   lives — we   can    hardly    do   better   than 
to  make  an  identical  statement  and  say,  while 
it  lives.     For  life  proves  itself;   there  are  actions, 
part  of  which  we  call  natural  and  part  of  which 
we  call   voluntary,   which   show   that  the  body 
which  performs  them  is  alive;    when  these  cease, 
a  change  which   we  do   not  understand  passes 
over  the  body   and   it  no   longer   lives.     There 
is  at  least  one  instance  in  which  a  human  body 
has  passed  outside  of  the  range  of  the  powers 
of  life  and  then  has  with  marked  changes  but 
indubitably    ex-perienced     those    powers    again; 
and  in  that  case,  which  we  have  strong  reason 
to  believe  will  not  be  unique,  the  proofs  of  life 
were  shown  as  plainly  and  accepted  as  readily 


102    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

as  before  death  supervened.  The  physical,  the 
psychical,  the  spiritual  life,  each  is  able  to  prove 
itself;  and  the  proof,  not  at  all  times  easy  to 
describe,  and  at  some  times  impossible  to  test, 
can  almost  always  be  recognized  as  one.  If 
asked  how  we  know  that  the  friend  whom  we 
passed  on  the  street  this  morning  or  the  man  with 
whom  we  touch  elbows  as  we  sit  together  is 
alive,  we  can  hardly  answer  better  than  by  say- 
ing. Why,  because  he  was,  or  is,  alive.  And  the 
Church  lives  with  the  spiritual  life  of  the  risen 
Christ  because  she  is  Christ's  body.  But  it 
is  chiefly,  or  at  least  I  may  say  primarily,  by  the 
body  that  any  person  in  this  sphere  of  existence 
makes  himself  known  to  other  persons  who  have 
bodies  and  produces  effects  on  material  nature. 
I  intend  to  speak  with  caution;  for  the  minds  of 
human  beings  still  in  this  psychical  life  do  make 
their  thoughts  and  wishes  and  affections  known 
to  others,  especially  those  with  whom  they  are 
intimate  and  whose  thoughts  are  usually  in  har- 
mony with  their  own,  without  what  we  can  call 
physical  means  of  expression.  But  speaking 
generally,  a  body  is  needed  in  a  world  consti- 
tuted as  is  ours  at  present  for  a  manifestation 
of  life,  as  also  a  body  is  needed  for  the  apprehen- 
sion of  that  manifestation.  The  glorified  Christ 
has  a  body  which  has  not  reached  its  destined 
glory  yet,  but  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  declare 
Him  to  mankind  and  through  mankind  to   (at 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  103 

least)  the  rest  of  the  terrestrial  creation,  the 
creatures  of  earth.  To  this  truth  we  shall, 
I  think,  look  back  again  and  more  than  once. 

2.  The  marks  or  indications  or  evidences  of 
this  life  are  given  in  the  very  early  records  of  the 
Church's  activity.  The  believers  in  Christ,  we 
are  told,  having  been  admitted  by  the  Spirit- 
guided  Apostles  into  their  company,  having 
(as  we  should  say)  been  admitted  into  the 
Church  just  born  of  the  Spirit  and  finding  its 
simple  organization  under  apostles  prepared  for 
it  and  them,  kept  close  in  the  teaching  of  those 
apostles  and  in  their  community  and  in  their 
breaking  of  the  bread  and  in  their  prayers. 
The  strangeness  and  the  reasonableness  of  the 
Spirit's  dealing  with  the  Church  from  the  begin- 
ning are  thus  shown.  That  was  no  merely 
human  organization  which  from  the  very  first 
laid  like  stress  on  the  need  that  its  members 
should  receive  instruction  as  to  the  body  into 
which  they  had  entered  and  should  hold  fast 
to  it  and  to  one  another  in  it — something  like 
these  you  would  find  in  any  kind  of  corporation 
or  society — and  also  on  a  common  meal,  and 
common  prayers;  yet  the  common  meal  by 
tradition  and  a  sort  of  necessity  belongs  to  any 
close  sharing  in  life,  and  all  ancient  guilds  had 
some  kind  of  common  worship,  for  which  indeed 
many  corporations  that  deal  with  matters  secula 


104    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

now  make  provision.  But  it  is  in  a  striking  way 
that  they  are  presented  to  us  at  the  close  of  the 
second  chapter  of  the  Acts,  the  chapter  which 
begins  with  the  miraculous  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  manifesting  Himself  at  once  in  the  utter- 
ances of  strange  tongues.  In  the  morning, 
men  from  all  parts  of  the  world  in  which  there 
were  Jews  caught  exciting  sounds  which  told 
them  of  the  wonderful  works  of  God,  and  some 
of  the  unthinking  multitude  reported  that  there 
was  a  riot  of  drunken  men  in  the  city  at  that 
early  hour  on  the  day  of  a  sacred  feast.  But  we 
read  at  once  how  on  that  day  St.  Peter  appealed 
to  the  multitude  to  see  in  these  wonders  the 
fulfilment  of  prophecy,  and  how  his  sermon  led 
some  to  believe  that  they  were  a  revelation  of 
the  life  of  Him  Whom  not  many  weeks  before 
they  had  demanded  for  death.  Many  were 
converted  and  baptized,  and  at  even  the  day 
which  had  begun  in  an  excitement  almost  like 
tumult  ended  in  religious  calm.  The  WTiter, 
we  may  well  think,  anticipated  the  progress  of 
those  early  days ;  but  we  can  see  how  soon  the 
Church  entered  upon  a  life  the  principles  of  which 
were  quiet  and  orderly.  Those  who  had  been 
admitted  into  the  new  life  continued  to  listen 
to  serious  teaching,  for  they  had  much  to  learn 
as  to  Christ  Jesus  and  His  life  and  death  and  glory 
and  expected  return;  they  made  advance  in 
'  communion  ' — sharing,  in  a  broad  sense  of  the 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  105 

word, — with  the  apostles,  keeping  with  them  in 
the  spirit  as  well  as  in  the  form  of  the  organiza- 
tion; they  partook  with  them  the  simple  fra- 
ternal meal,  in  which  we  may  be  well  assured 
they  were  led  to  the  sacrament  which  for  a  while 
was  closely  joined  to  it  or  even  formed  a  part 
of  it;  and  they  neglected  not  to  pray  together, 
being  especially  taught  to  pray  through  Christ 
in  the  Spirit,  to  address  Christ  in  worship  by  the 
sacred  title  of  "  Lord,"  and  to  sing  (we  may  well 
believe)  a  doxology  to  God  as  He  was  then 
revealed  in  the  triune  Name. 

3.  Centuries  have  passed;  the  circumstances 
of  the  Church  have  been  greatly  modified,  and 
her  needs  cannot  be  as  simply  expressed  as  in 
the  early  days.  The  words  of  St.  Luke  have  in 
a  way  expanded  in  meaning,  while  they  have 
in  a  way,  we  may  fear,  narrowed  in  the  applica- 
tion which  we  make  of  them.  Yet  still  we  urge 
upon  ourselves,  and  we  exhort  those  whom  it 
is  our  privilege  to  teach,  that  they  see  to  it 
that  in  themselves  and  through  themselves  the 
Church's  life  be  shown,  as  it  was  at  Pentecost 
and  on  the  days  which  followed  upon  it.  "  Con- 
tinue we,  continue  ye,  stedfast  in  the  Apostles' 
teaching  and  their  fellowship,  and  in  the  breaking 
of  the  bread  and  in  the  prayers."  As  at  first, 
so  all  through  the  ages,  so  in  our  day,  so  at  least 
while  this  age  shall  endure,  the  continuance  of 


106    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

spiritual  life  depends  upon  faithful  acceptance 
of  truth,  ever  the  same  yet  ever  widening  in 
scope  and  in  acceptance,  diligent  activity  in  de- 
pendence upon  the  organism,  constant  recurrence 
to  the  means  by  which  our  union  with  our  Lord 
is  renewed  and  strengthened,  and  unbroken 
access  to  the  Father  in  worship  and  prayer. 
For  the  life  is  ever  the  same,  and  it  is  ever  in 
the  same  way  manifested. 


II 

1.  In  living,  we  may  rightly  say,  the  Church 
does  her  duty  to  herself,  to  mankind,  and  to  her 
Head.  As  in  the  perfections  of  the  Godhead, 
it  is  not  one  thing  to  exist,  another  to  will,  another 
to  know,  and  still  another  to  love,  but  the  sole 
action  of  being  includes  all  else  that  pertains 
to  God,  so  as  any  life  approaches  perfection 
all  else  is  included,  as  in  a  majestic  and  self- 
inclusive  harmony,  in  the  great  attributes  of 
life.  And  the  Church's  life  is  the  life  of  her 
Head;  limited  it  is,  indeed,  in  its  possibilities 
and  its  effectiveness,  by  her  limitations,  in  part 
necessary  because  she  has  not  attained  to  her 
fulness  of  growth,  in  part  to  be  faulted  because 
she  has  not  attained  to  the  state  of  progress  which 
might  be  hers.  Still  she  does  live  and  prove 
her  life;  and  certain  stages  or  conditions  of  that 
life  are  indicated  by  the  Apostle's  words  which  I 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  107 

read  as  my  text.  Speaking  to  Christians  of  their 
experiences,  he  specially  mentions  hearing  the 
word  of  truth,  the  Gospel  of  their  salvation, 
and  believing — that  is  to  say,  becoming  believers 
and  making  profession  of  belief  at  the  time  of 
baptism — both  as  preliminary  to  their  sealing 
with  (or  by)  the  Spirit  of  the  promise,  who  is 
the  Holy  Spirit.  To  have  the  fulness  of  the 
Apostle's  thought  before  us,  let  us  complete  the 
sentence,  though  we  cannot  enter  upon  its  full 
exposition  now:  "  the  Holy  Spirit,  Who  is  given 
for  an  earnest  of  our  destined  inheritance,  with 
a  view  to  redemption  of  God's  special  possession, 
expecting  from  it  praise  of  God's  great  glory." 
Hearing,  believing,  marked  with  a  seal:  the 
life  first  shown  in  the  prevenient  act  or  power 
which  gives  attention  to  the  voice  of  a  herald, 
evoking  as  of  old  the  sense  of  need  and  leading 
to  repentance;  the  response  to  that  voice  by 
faith,  and  that  the  faith  of  a  personal  allegiance, 
leading  to  the  surrender  of  the  life  to  Christ 
and  baptism  into  His  Name;  then  the  accept- 
ance of  the  seal  which,  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
with  the  laying-on  of  hands,  marks  the  hearer 
and  believer  as  God's  own  child  through  Christ 
and  bestows  the  earnest  and  pledge  of  the  future 
inheritance,  the  indwelling  of  God,  the  posses- 
sion of  His  fulness.  The  words  as  they  stand 
specially  describe  the  progress  in  the  life  of  each 
believer;     but   they   mark   the   individual's   life 


108    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

because  they  mark  the  Church's  hfe,  her  Hfe  of 
learning,  of  experience,  and  of  growth. 

In  this  the  Church  discharges  her  great  duty 
to  herself — really  her  first  duty,  for  she  is  the 
Body  of  Christ  and  she  is  a  part  of  Him  as  He 
is  the  Incarnate  one, — her  duty  to  attain  her 
perfection,  through  growth  in  beauty  and  in 
strength.  Sometimes  we  shrink  from  this 
thought,  as  betokening  something  of  selfishness 
and  suggesting  a  neglect  of  duty  to  the  world 
whose  servant  the  Church  is.  But  such  concep- 
tion is  far  from  the  truth.  The  Church  needs 
to  remember,  and  sometimes  to  remind  herself 
sternly,  that  sealed  with  the  Spirit's  seal  she  is 
first  to  bring  to  perfection  in  herself  the  Spirit's 
life;  that  the  order  and  the  vigor  of  the  Spirit, 
with  all  that  they  imply  of  beauty  and  of  strength, 
are  needed  that  she  may  truly  live  and  in  her 
life  may  render  the  service  for  which  she  will 
then  be  fitted;  that  the  nations  will  fear  the  Name 
of  the  Lord  and  all  the  kings  of  the  earth  His 
majesty,  only  when  the  Lord  hath  built  up  Sion 
and  when  His  glory  shall  have  been  made  mani- 
fest. There  must  be  the  training,  the  growth, 
of  the  Body,  and  it  must  attain  to  reality  of 
attractiveness  and  of  power  that  there  may  be 
the  result  of  the  life  in  at  least  its  precious  begin- 
nings. Thus  it  must  be  in  each  saint;  his 
life,  as  it  is  his  life,  must  grow  under  the  divine 
ordering  both  in  beauty  and  in  strength,  by  the 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  109 

Holy  Spirit  who  has  sealed  it,  unto  the  attain- 
ment of  the  inheritance  and  the  praise  of  God's 
glory. 

2.  In   this   growth    and    progress   the   Church 
ever  continues  young.     Perhaps  we  need  some- 
times  to   remind   ourselves   that    Christ   in   our 
humanity  is  man  in  the  beginning  of  what  we 
call   middle   life.     When   He   entered   upon   His 
ministry    He   had    advanced    in    years    a    little, 
but  not  very  much,  beyond  the  average  age  of  our 
theological  students;    he  had  passed  the  period 
to  which  immaturity  belongs,  and  had  arrived 
at  the  period  of  testing  fundamental  principles 
and    of    determining    the    mould    of    character. 
This  can  be  seen  from  a  study  of  the  temptations 
which  assailed  Him  when  he  was  about  to  enter 
upon  His  ministry,  which  are  those  of  the  begin- 
ning   of    conscious    and    insistent   responsibility. 
The   experience    of   the   years   of    the   ministry, 
varying    greatly    in    degree    from    those    of    His 
followers,  were  not  in  kind  different  from  what 
any  true  and  faithful  young  man  should  expect. 
And  His  victory  and  His  glory  came  to  Him  as  a 
man  of  early  experience,  early  trials,  and  early 
formed   character.     It  is   in  that  period  of  life 
that  He  belongs,   past  the  evident  immaturity 
of  youth,  so  attractive  that  we  ever  fear  for  it, 
past  the  very  beginnings  of  real  manhood,  but 
bearing  the  freshness  of  a  victory  gained  therein 


110    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  the  vigor  of  a  life  strengthened  thereby. 
As  His  sympathy  remains  with  the  children  and 
the  youths  whose  lot  He  shared,  so  it  reaches 
forward  to  those  who  have  attained  a  greater 
age  than  fell  to  His  earthly  lot;  He  is  the  friend, 
the  Saviour,  yes  the  example  of  men  who  have 
passed  middle  life  and  who  serve  with  a  strength 
which  they  have  conserved  and  habituated  to 
work  on  principle;  and  as  years  pass  on  and 
vigor  fails  while  faith  increases  and  mental  and 
spiritual  powers  are  even  quickened,  the  man 
past  middle  age  and  he  whose  steps  are  hasten- 
ing to  the  end  knows  what  that  youthful  power 
still  means  for  Him.  The  Lord  is  ever  young. 
And  in  the  same  youthfulness  the  Church  is 
ever  young.  One  of  the  early  Christian  writers 
described  the  Church  under  the  figure  of  a  very 
aged  woman,  because  her  years  reached  back  to 
the  time  of  the  beginning  and  she  could  speak 
with  experience  and  from  long  memory.  Not 
thus  wrote  St.  Paul,  when  telling  of  Christ's  love 
for  the  Church,  how  He  gave  Himself  for  her, 
that  He  might  wash  and  cleanse  her,  he  declared 
Christ's  purpose  to  be  that  he  might  present 
to  Himself  the  Church  all-glorious,  having  no 
mark  of  defilement  or  of  age — "  not  having  spot 
or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing."  Free  from  sin, 
she  stands  forth  in  her  ideal  as  also  free  from  all 
mark  of  age.*     All  that  is  beautiful  and  strong 

*  Ephesians  v.  27. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  111 

in  human  ideal  as  belonging  to  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  belongs  also  to  the  Church.  And  I  think 
that  I  may  venture  to  suggest  that  the  very 
faults  of  the  Church  are  youthful  faults,  in  a 
way  more  tolerable  than  the  inveterate  and 
settled  faults  of  old  age,  while  on  the  other  hand 
they  are  specially  blameworthy  as  springing  from 
carelessness  and  inconsideration.  The  Church 
is  young;  those  of  us  who  are  young  should  find 
in  this  the  ground  of  enthusiastic  sympathy  for 
her  in  her  present  work  and  in  her  holy  and 
brave  aspirations;  those  who  are  older  should 
have  from  it  an  encouragement  to  keep  their 
lives  in  the  earnestness  and  hope  and  devotion 
and  charity  of  youth;  those  on  whom  the  con- 
sciousness of  age  begins  to  press  seriously  should 
stay  themselves  upon  the  strength  which  cannot 
weaken  and  the  joy  which  endureth  for  evermore. 
Thus  as  the  ascended  Christ  in  the  heavens 
fulfils,  or  is  fulfilling,  the  ideal  of  manhood  as 
it  can  be  fulfilled  by  the  Head  "  in  the  heaven- 
lies,"  so  the  Church  on  earth  and  in  paradise 
fulfils  the  same  ideal  as  it  can  be  fulfilled  by  the 
body  in  its  growth  on  earth  and  its  rest  in  the 
waiting  world.  In  living,  as  it  comes  to  know 
better  the  great  truths  revealed  in  Christ,  as 
its  faith  is  quickened  and  becomes  more  all- 
embracing  and  more  firm,  as  it  enters  into  the 
full  spiritual  energy  for  which  it  was  sealed, 
the   Church   is   ever   receiving    new   revelations 


112    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

of  obedience,  of  reality,  and  of  worship;    in  thus 
living  she  finds  ever  new  life. 

3.  Convinced  of  this,  we  shall  do  well 
meditate  at  times  upon  the  Church  simply  as  she 
stands  related  to  her  divine  Head  and  thus  to 
the  eternal  Father  through  the  Spirit  of  life. 
We  are  so  constantly  called  to  ask  what  the  Church 
can  do,  by  way  of  action  which  can  visibly  oper- 
ate upon  the  world,  which  can  lead  to  results 
measured  by  the  arithmetic  of  time  and  space, 
that  we  forget  that  there  is  a  hidden  life  for  the 
Body  of  Christ  as  for  each  of  that  body's  members, 
of  which  none  can  know  save  the  body  or  the 
member  which  experiences  it,  and  the  knowledge 
of  which  oftentimes  does  not  pass  beyond  the 
innermost  spirit.  There  is  an  obedience  of  de- 
vout submission  of  which  we  can  scarce  tell 
ourselves,  a  bright  vision  of  truth  which  is  in- 
fused into  the  self  without  the  framing  of  argu- 
ment or  the  call  for  conviction,  a  worship  which 
is  rendered  in  spiritual  silence  and  unutterable 
awe.  The  Church  at  times,  as  in  the  pauses  in 
her  solemn  services,  finds  herself  on  some  mount 
of  transfiguration  where  her  Lord  is  revealed  with 
chosen  witnesses  or  alone;  the  devout  member  of 
Christ  comes  into  a  presence  where  he  is  admitted 
an  eye-witness  of  the  Majesty  of  the  Master  * 
and  beholds  the  glory  which  is  yet  to  be  revealed; 
♦II.  Peter  i.   16. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  113 

it  may  be  even  in  busy  duties  or  in  sad  distrac- 
tions or  in  sore  temptations  that  the  spirit  some- 
times finds  itself  alone  with  God,  facing  un- 
speakable realities,  living  with  a  life  which  has 
nought  to  do  with  earth.  In  this  there  is  a  mighty 
power  not  elsewhere  made  known,  something 
real  beyond  our  definitions  of  reality;  it  can  be 
written  only  of  those  to  whom  it  is  granted,  as  it 
is  written  of  those  to  whom  Christ  was  revealed 
on  the  holy  mount:  "They  kept  it  close,  and 
told  no  man  in  those  days  any  of  those  things 
which  they  had  seen."  * 

But  they  had  seen  it,  and  they  could  not  for- 
get it,  and  though  they  must  needs  come  down 
from  the  mount,  and  find  again  the  labors  and 
trials  of  earth,  they  knew  of  a  peace,  a  strength, 
a  joy,  which  the  world  did  not  give  and  which 
the  world  could  not  take  away. 

Ill 

We  pass  on  to  consider,  as  is  most  necessary, 
the  life  of  the  Church  as  Sacramental  Life.  And 
if  it  is  natural,  if  it  is  necessary,  if  it  is  the  life 
of  the  Incarnation,  it  must  be  sacramental. 

1.  We  need  not  pause  for  any  precise  defini- 
tion of  our  term;    a  better  approach  to  it  may 
perhaps  be  made  at  the  end  of  our  meditation. 
It  may  suflBce  here  to  say  that  sacramental  life 
*Luke  be   86. 


114    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

is  mediated  life,  and  that  the  media  by  which 
it  is  communicated  at  its  beginning  or  in  the 
course  of  its  progress  are  designated  media; 
and  further  that  it  presents  a  combination  of 
spiritual  powers  and  natural  agencies,  which 
may  stand  in  apparent  contradiction  to  each  other 
but  prove  to  be  in  entire  and  consistent  harmony. 
The  words  have  unconsciously  broadened  out 
till  they  include  almost  everything  of  what  we 
call  nature.  Creation  is  sacramental;  evolution, 
meaning  progress  under  law,  is  sacramental; 
our  noblest  faculties  of  apperception  and  appre- 
ciation, our  recognition  of  beauty  and  grandeur, 
of  contrast  and  harmony,  are  sacramental.  The 
keen  powers  of  the  senses,  sight  and  sound, 
taste  and  smell,  with  the  subtleties  of  touch, 
itself  including  all  the  others,  awake  responses 
not  only  from  receptive  nerves,  but  also  from  the 
mind,  the  soul,  the  spirit  of  man.  God  ministers 
to  our  psychical  and  spiritual  nature  through 
that  which  is  physical;  the  world  itself  prepares 
us  for  the  thought  of  the  Creator;  and  from  our 
study  of  the  kind  of  world  that  this  is  and  the 
method  of  its  administration,  we  learn  somewhat 
of  the  purpose  and  the  character  of  Him  who 
made  it  and  endowed  it  and  guides  it.  The 
Church  would  not  be  in  harmony  with  the  frame 
of  the  world,  the  second  creation  with  the  first, 
if  its  plan  and  administration  were  not  sacra- 
mental.    But  the  new  life  cannot  be  less  real. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  116 

cannot  stand  on  a  lower  plane  of  reality,  than  the 
life  of  flowers  and  fruits,  of  living  creatures 
great  and  small,  of  protoplasm  and  of  starry 
systems,  of  poetry  and  philosophy  and  mathe- 
matics, of  the  microscope  and  the  telescope. 
All  these,  in  each  of  their  manifold  divisions, 
have  a  spiritual  element  to  which  we  are  led  by 
the  physical  element;  and  when  we  have  reached 
the  spiritual,  it  needs  no  proof  to  assure  us  that 
we  have  reached  the  reality.  The  physicist 
draws  very  close  to-day  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
great  Bishop  of  Cloyne;  men  smiled  at  his 
teachings  in  his  own  days  even  though  they 
reverenced  the  man  for  his  many  virtues;  now 
his  lessons  as  to  reality,  his  contentions  that  the 
really  real  is  the  ideal,  are  heard  with  recog- 
nition of  their  essential  truth. 

2,  Into  this  sacramental  world  the  Church 
came;  and  it  found  itself  sacramental,  furnished 
for  duties  which  called  for  the  sacramental  and 
for  which  the  sacramental  was  formed.  There 
was  no  apology  on  the  part  of  the  apostles  for 
preaching  a  Church  which  offered  grace  through 
an  ordinance  having  an  outward  and  visible  sign; 
and  there  was  no  hesitation  on  the  part  of  those 
who  heard  and  believed  in  accepting  the  out- 
ward means  of  communicating  the  grace.  "  Re- 
pent and  be  baptized  in  the  Name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 


116    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Ghost.  Then  they  that  received  Peter's  word 
were  baptized."  And  a  Httle  later  at  Samaria: 
"  When  they  beheved  Phihp  as  he  preached, 
they  were  baptized.  .  .  .  And  when  the  apostles 
at  Jerusalem  heard  that  Samaria  had  received 
the  Word  of  God  " — and  this  receiving  evidently 
included  baptism — "  they  sent  unto  them  Peter 
and  John;  and  when  they  had  prayed  for  the 
baptized  believers,  they  laid  hands  on  them  and 
they  received  the  Holy  Spirit."  *  So  it  was 
everywhere;  the  formal  admission  to  the  Church 
was  by  an  external  act:  "by  laying-on  of 
apostles'  hands  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given." 
For  obvious  reasons  we  do  not  read  at  the  first 
of  the  ministration  of  the  other  great  Sacrament; 
but  the  definite  statements  that  the  baptized 
continued  stedfast  in  the  breaking  of  the  bread, 
and  that  they  broke  bread  in  the  private  assem- 
blies in  believers'  houses,  make  it  evident 
that  the  sacramental  system,  as  we  call  it,  pre- 
vailed from  the  very  first.  And  this  involves, 
quite  otherwise  than  is  ordinarily  thought,  the 
constant  and  close  intercommunion  between 
the  Lord  and  the  members  of  the  Church,  their 
constant  recurrence  to  Him  for  pardon  of  their 
daily  sins,  for  help  in  the  little  trials  of  what 
we  should  call  a  quiet  life,  for  courage  and  pro- 
tection in  special  dangers,  for  fresh  supply  of 
strength  when  the  assaults  of  evil  come  thick 

*  Acts  u.  41,  viii.  12,  14-17. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  117 

and  fast.  The  sacramental  life  is  the  life  of  public 
worship  and  the  observance  of  ordinances;  but  it 
is  for  that  very  reason  the  life  of  quiet  approach 
to  God  and  mystical  indwelling  in  Him.  For 
the  well-instructed  Churchman,  the  sacramental 
life  is  the  life  of  personal  religion. 

3.  Thus  we  may  say  that  the  life  of  the  Church 
is  manifested  in  her  members  in  and  through  the 
use  of  the  appointed  means  of  grace,  the  sacra- 
ments and  sacramental  ordinances.  These  ap- 
pointed means,  unchanging  in  their  simplicity  as 
ordinances  and  with  very  little  that  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  their  validity,  may  vary  much  in  the 
accessories  of  their  administration  and  in  their 
application  to  the  needs  of  the  soul.  Of  the 
former,  that  which  has  to  do  specially  with  the 
learning  and  the  piety  of  the  liturgist  or  ritualist, 
it  needs  not  that  we  speak  now.  As  to  the  latter, 
the  relation  of  the  gifts  of  grace  to  the  manifold 
needs  of  each  soul,  we  may  well  remind  ourselves 
by  carrying  on  a  little  further  what  has  just  been 
said  of  the  place  of  sacraments  in  personal  re- 
ligion. The  grace  of  baptism,  admitting  to  a 
relationship,  is  as  long  as  it  is  not  repudiated 
operative  in  that  state  to  which  the  baptized 
is  admitted.  He  stands,  not  only  as  once  for- 
given, but  as  in  the  atmosphere  of  forgiveness, 
in  which  God  awaits  and  expects  his  constant 
turning  to  Him   and   is  pledged  to  grant  fresh 


118    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

supplies  of  that  life  which  cleanses  and  in  cleans- 
ing gives  new  strength.  "  That  this  child  may- 
enjoy  the  everlasting  benediction  of  thy  heavenly 
washing";  thus  the  old  collect  in  the  services 
sings  for  us  the  theology  of  the  sacrament  in 
which,  to  use  another  phrase  of  the  same  prayer, 
we  are  given  "  remission  of  sins  by  spiritual  regen- 
eration." The  gift  is  one;  its  applications  are 
as  numerous  and  as  varied  as  the  moments  of  the 
hfe  of  man  from  the  font  to  the  grave.  The 
benediction  of  the  Spirit  given  in  the  laying-on 
of  apostolic  hands,  in  its  sevenfold  enumeration 
of  those  gifts  suggests  that  they  are  manifoldly 
to  be  sought  and  that  they  will  be  manifoldly 
supplied;  and  their  wondrous  applications  should 
be  expected  and  used  for  that  daily  increase  in 
the  Spirit  for  which  the  bishop  prayed  when  he 
gave  us  our  life's  blessing.  And  how  can  we 
speak  of  that  which  the  Father  gives  us  and 
that  which  we  receive  in  the  sacrament  of  con- 
tinued life  wherein  we  partake  again  and  again 
of  the  spiritual  food  of  the  glorified  manhood 
of  our  Saviour?  As  the  Jewish  writers,  to 
magnify  the  value  of  the  food  from  heaven 
given  in  the  wilderness,  said  that  each  one  who 
partook  of  it  found  the  taste  and  the  nourish- 
ment which  he  desired  or  needed,  so  each  hum- 
blest worshipper  as  he  receives  the  one  gift  re- 
ceives Christ  for  the  then  urgent  need  of  his 
soul,  healing  of  his  special  grief,  strength  for  his 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  119 

special  weakness  and  burden,  courage  for  his 
special  undertaking  to  do  and  to  bear.  Each 
one  finds  awaiting  him,  for  strength  and  for  joy, 
the  bread  of  life  and  the  wine  of  gladness;  the 
whole  life  of  man  is  made  strong  and  happy  by 
these  gifts  of  the  life  of  God,  ministered  through 
the  humanity  of  the  Son  by  the  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  And  in  these  ways,  as  we  pass  to 
our  next  topic,  we  may  note  that  our  member- 
ship in  the  Church  is  made  a  real  thing  to  us 
and  is  also  in  a  real  way  manifested  to  the  world. 

IV 

The  membership  means  the  sharing  of  the  life. 
Our  membership  in  the  Church  means  our  re- 
ceiving through  the  Church  somewhat  of  the  life 
of  the  glorified  Lord  as  it  is  imparted  to  His  Body. 

1.  How,  then,  do  we  enter  into  that  member- 
ship.? On  what  does  it  depend.?  And  by  what 
means  is  it  continued.?  The  Church  is  a  visible 
body,  with  a  life  invisible  yet  manifested  by  the 
very  act  of  living;  how  do  individuals  enter 
into  that  body  and  share  in  its  life?  Now,  the 
only  life  of  man,  as  he  is  or  becomes  a  mem- 
ber of  Christ,  is  the  life  of  Christ  the  Son  of 
Man;  and  from  what  we  have  said  as  to  the 
sacramental  character  of  His  religion,  we  have 
every  reason  to  think  that  that  life  will  be  im- 
parted sacramentally  or  by  means  of  some  ordi- 


120    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

nance.  Again,  the  life  of  Christ  is  certainly 
made  manifest  and  has  been  seen  more  or  less 
distinctly  as  it  has  modified  the  course  of  events, 
the  actions  of  men,  the  characters  of  the  saints. 
The  life  therefore  of  those  who  having  been 
admitted  members  of  the  Church  have  become 
members  of  Christ,  must  be  made  manifest, 
must  follow  the  law  of  spiritual  manifestation; 
and  that  can  be  no  real  life  which  does  not  mani- 
fest itself  in  the  process  and  by  the  works  of 
living.  There  would  be  among  us,  I  think, 
no  question  as  to  the  truth  involved  in  these 
words;  but  it  is  difficult  to  determine  the  con- 
clusions or  the  limits  of  the  conclusions  which 
we  should  draw  from  them.  The  Church  follows 
the  New  Testament  closely  in  declaring  that  all 
persons  rightly  baptized  are  by  their  baptism 
made  members  of  Christ  and  of  His  Church, 
the  children  of  God,  and  inheritors  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  The  verbs  which  describe 
under  various  figures  the  death  unto  sin  and  the 
beginning  of  the  new  life  unto  righteousness 
are  so  constantly  put  into  the  form  which  denotes 
a  single  act,  and  we  may  almost  say  a  momentary 
act,  that  some  have  spoken  of  the  "  baptismal 
aorist  "  as  that  which  tells  of  the  change  of  state 
or  manner  of  life  or  privilege  which  was  made  or 
into  which  a  human  being  entered  at  the  time 
when  in  the  water  of  baptism  he  passed  from  the 
old  life  to  the  new.     In  this  change,  the  person 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  121 

baptized  became  a  Christian,  a  member  of  the 
Church.  The  sacramental  act  was  a  formal 
act  of  admission;  a  man  professing  himself  a 
believer  in  Jesus  Christ  was  admitted,  by  one 
who  had  the  authority  in  this  matter  to  act 
for  Christ,  into  membership  in  Christ's  body. 
And  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  as  often  as 
that  act  has  been  repeated  in  the  Christian 
centuries,  so  often  has  a  new  member  been 
admitted  into  the  body  of  Christ. 

2.  But  we  cannot  make  this  declaration  with- 
out a  suspicion  that  we  have  not  a  quite  exact 
definition  of  our  terms.  In  the  early  days 
the  candidate  for  admission  was  almost  always 
an  adult,  whose  conversion  from  Judaism  or 
heathenism  or  irreligion  was  well  known  to  have 
been  based  on  conviction  and  to  have  been  thor- 
oughly tested.  His  passage  from  the  old  life 
to  the  new,  as  he  passed  through  the  waters  of 
baptism,  was  quite  as  distinctly  marked  as  was 
the  passage  of  the  children  of  Israel  from  bondage 
to  liberty  as  they  passed  through  the  Red  Sea. 
If  any  one  went  back,  he  went  back,  and  it  was 
well  known  that  he  had  left  the  Christian  brother- 
hood and  that  the  Church,  however  earnestly 
she  would  strive  for  his  return,  now  counted  him 
no  longer  a  member.  To-day  the  condition 
of  things  is  not  the  same.  Most  of  the  members 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  our  land  were  baptized 


122    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

in  infancy;  and  the  Church  is  entirely  satisfied 
that  all  baptized  infants  are  in  virtue  of  their 
baptism  members  of  her  body  and  in  sacramental 
union  with  her  Head.  The  priest,  the  sponsors, 
and  the  parents,  in  varying  ways  representing 
the  child,  the  Church,  and  the  Church's  Head, 
have  made  the  baptismal  covenant;  the  child 
has  been  "  regenerate  and  grafted  into  the  body 
of  Christ's  Church."  But,  by  some  untoward 
combination  of  circumstances,  the  child  may 
be  in  no  wise  "  brought  up  to  lead  a  godly  and  a 
Christian  life,"  except  by  accidental  influences 
such  as  may  be  expected  to  reach  every  one 
in  a  civilized  land;  and  another  child,  not  bap- 
tized in  infancy  but  brought  up  (let  us  say) 
by  godly  parents  who  are  training  him  for  adult 
baptism  is,  to  all  outward  appearance  and  as 
far  as  we  can  judge  from  his  conduct,  the  other's 
superior  in  things  moral  and  spiritual.  We 
answer,  and  by  the  letter  answer  rightly,  that 
the  one  was  in  infancy  brought  into  a  spiritual 
relation  with  Christ  which  he  has  never  formally 
repudiated,  and  that  the  other,  although  he  has 
doubtless  received  God's  grace  and  blessing, 
has  not  been  formally  brought  into  that  rela- 
tion. And  we  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
regeneration,  though  a  spiritual,  is  not  a  moral 
change,  and  that  it  is  largely  preparatory  for  a 
change  like  that  of  conversion  which  is  moral 
and  does  depend  on  the  co-operation  of  the  con- 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  123 

scious  will.  And  thus  we  say  that  the  baptized 
child  who  grows  up  into  a  godless  youth  is  a 
member  of  the  Church,  and  that  the  moral 
though  perhaps  not  quite  godly  youth  is  not  a 
member  of  the  Church;  and  perhaps  we  fall 
back  on  the  distinction  between  covenanted  and 
uncovenanted  grace.  Two  thoughts  may  help 
us  before  we  proceed  with  our  discussion:  the 
one,  that  all  spiritual,  and  for  that  matter  all 
moral,  relationships  are  progressive,  because  the 
human  nature  in  which  they  are  exhibited 
is  progressive;  that  a  relation  made  possible, 
that  it  may  be  of  value  must  become  a  relation 
pledged,  and  a  relation  pledged  must  pass  into  a 
relation  established;  that  a  full-grown  man  may 
not  fall  back  on  that  of  which  alone  he  was  capable 
as  a  child;  that  a  child's  membership  in  the 
Church  is  not  worthy  of  a  man,  in  fact  is  not 
possible  for  a  man.  The  second  consideration 
which  ought  to  weigh  with  us  is  this:  that  re- 
generation which  does  not  lead  to  conversion, 
baptism  with  its  initiating  gifts  which  does  not 
lead  to  confirmation  with  its  inspirational  gifts, 
is  in  danger  of  proving  void  in  all  that  belongs 
to  character  and  to  real  life;  that  membership 
in  the  Church,  though  it  may  serve  to  work  from 
and  build  upon,  means  but  little  to  one  who 
does  not  pass  from  the  doctrine  of  baptisms 
and  of  laying  on  of  hands  to  their  completion 
in  the  great  sacrament  of  life,  the  communion 


124    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  The  priest 
is  negHgent  of  duty,  both  as  a  theologian  and  a 
pastor,  who  does  not  lead  all  his  baptized  par- 
ishioners to  Confirmation  and  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. 

3.  I  will  not  tarry  long  over  the  question  as 
to  who  are  the  appointed  ministers  of  Baptism, 
or  in  other  words  who  are  authorized  to  repre- 
sent the  Church  in  the  admission  of  new  mem- 
bers. In  the  earliest  times,  as  far  as  can  be 
gathered  from  the  New  Testament,  either  the 
apostles  themselves  baptized  or  else  they  com- 
missioned others  for  the  ministration,  perhaps 
for  the  time,  perhaps  permanently.  The  gift 
of  the  Spirit  did  not  belong  of  necessity  to  bap- 
tism; for  a  while  it  was  evidently  expected  at 
the  laying  on  of  hands,  though  sometimes  it  was 
given  even  before  baptism.  In  early  post- 
apostolic  days,  it  would  seem  that  the  bishop 
of  each  community  was  the  normal  administra- 
tor of  baptism,  certainly  of  the  public  baptism 
of  adults;  at  least  we  gather  that  this  was  the 
rule  at  Rome,  the  typical  Church  of  the  West, 
and  in  that  large  circle  of  churches  which  were 
affected  by  its  example.  In  the  East,  where  the 
bishops  were  more  distinctly  a  separate  order, 
they  seem  to  have  had  less  of  a  pastoral  char- 
acter, and  the  parish  "  popes  "  baptized  and  in- 
voked the  Spirit  at  once  by  the  ministry  of  chrism. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  125 

The  question  as  to  the  validity  or  the  suffici- 
ency of  lay-baptism — that  is  to  say  the  bap- 
tising by  one  who  has  not  been  episcopally 
ordained  at  least  to  the  diaconate — too  generally 
assumed  to  have  been  settled  by  some  practice 
or  law  of  the  Church,  is  in  reality  far  from  being 
settled.  Some  careful  student  ought  to  make 
a  very  careful  investigation  of  the  whole  matter 
from  the  beginning,  in  all  the  light  which  can 
be  found  from  undisputed  texts  of  early  writers. 
Perhaps  I  speak  to-night  to  some  young  man 
who  can  devote  his  horoe  subscecivce  for  a  life- 
time to  this  inquiry,  and  tell  us  exactly  what 
was,  or  lacking  this  exactly  what  was  not,  the 
judgment  of  the  early  Church  in  this  matter, 
and  whether  the  Church  of  later  years  has  con- 
curred in  this  judgment  or  has  for  good  reasons 
modified  it.  I  have  not  made  such  a  study 
and  I  cannot  expect  to  make  it;  but  I  feel  toler- 
ably sure  of  three  positions:  first,  that  no  one 
but  a  member  of  the  Church,  and  one  who  in 
purpose  and  act  continues  a  member  of  it,  can 
possibly  admit  to  its  membership;  second,  that 
in  the  cases  cited  from  the  decisions  of  councils 
in  and  about  the  fourth  century,  the  questions 
raised  were  as  to  the  theological  soundness  or 
the  ecclesiastical  status  of  those  who  had  bap- 
tized, whether  (that  is)  the  heresies  which  they 
held  or  the  schisms  into  which  they  had  strayed 
unfitted   them  for  this  service,   there  being  no 


126    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

doubt  that  they  all  had  a  technically  valid 
ministry;  third,  that  the  Church  of  England, 
wavering  for  a  while  under  Roman  influence, 
has  now  for  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  half 
formally  declined  to  acknowledge  the  validity  of 
lay-baptism.  Whether  her  doctors  have  taught 
that  episcopal  confirmation  remedies  the  defects 
of  such  baptism  by  a  sort  of  oeconomy,  I  do  not 
presume  to  say;  and  it  does  not  belong  to  the 
scope  of  this  lecture  to  attempt  to  decide  for 
the  Church,  or  to  show  how  the  results  of  dif- 
ficult answers  to  diflScult  questions  can  be  avoided. 
Certainly  we  must  not  forget  the  great  impor- 
tance and  the  great  seriousness  of  baptism.  In 
the  case  of  adults,  the  decision  as  to  its  adminis- 
tration involves,  more  perhaps  than  anything 
else,  a  decision  as  to  the  remission  or  the  retain- 
ing of  sins;  and  infants  are  not  to  be  publicly 
received  into  the  Church  without  a  solemn  guar- 
antee as  to  their  instruction  and  training  in  the 
Christian  life  from  the  beginning,  and  their 
preparation  for  the  laying-on  of  hands  in  con- 
firmation that  they  may  be  admitted  to  the 
Holy  Communion.  The  obligations  which  the 
Church  assumes  at  every  baptism  are  not  light 
or  negligible;  the  obligations  which  rest  upon 
us  who  have  been  baptized  are  serious  and  lasting. 
"  We  who  are  baptized  should  be  continually 
mortifying  our  evil  affections  and  daily  proceeding 
in  all  virtue  and  godliness  of  living." 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  127 


1.  It  is  but  fair  that  we  should  ask,  after  we 
have  dwelt  upon  the  importance  of  membership 
in  the  Church  and  of  the  sacrament  by  which 
that  membership  is  secured,  whether  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  implicit  membership  in  the 
Church,  or  whether  (perhaps)  there  is  a  mem- 
bership in  the  kingdom  with  which  some  are 
blessed  while  they  are  not  formally  admitted  to 
the  Church.  It  has  never  been  doubted  that 
they  receive  the  sacraments  in  voto  who,  being 
spiritually  prepared  for  their  reception,  are  yet 
hindered  by  accident  or  by  sudden  death  from  the 
blessing  of  the  ordinance  in  its  normal  form. 
A  rubric  prefixed  to  our  office  for  the  Communion 
of  the  Sick,  much  older  than  the  English  office 
for  the  ministration,  teaches  us  this  as  to  the 
one  sacrament;  and  all  will  allow  that  it  applies 
to  the  other.  In  regard  to  little  children, 
who  cannot  by  reason  of  their  tender  years 
have  the  desire  of  the  sacramental  grace,  the 
Church  may  rightly  accept  the  intention  of  par- 
ents, or  even  her  own  general  intention,  as 
taking  the  place  of  a  baptism  which  could  not 
be  administered.  Our  own  Church  bids  us 
bury  all  infants  as  her  members,  our  brothers 
and  sisters  in  her  communion.  To  go  further 
than  this,  I  should  say,  is  to  intrude  our  decisions 
into  that  sphere  which,  owing  to  our  ignorance. 


128    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

God  has  reserved  to  Himself.  In  all  ages,  in 
almost  every  community,  there  have  been  and 
there  are  "  seekers  after  God,"  prope  nostri, 
men  of  good  lives,  of  inspiring  thought,  of  help- 
ful service,  who  put  us  to  shame  by  reason  of 
the  use  which  they  make  of  God's  gifts.  They 
belong  to  God,  and  He  has  for  them  a  duty, 
an  enlightening,  and  a  blessing.  But  they  are 
not  members  of  His  Church,  and  we  feel  that 
they  lose  much  by  remaining  outside  of  that 
holy  fellowship.  We  may  be  content  to  know 
that  the  revelation  which  has  come  to  us  is  not 
the  complete  scheme  of  God's  dealings  with  His 
world  of  rational  creatures,  and  that  to  be  in 
this  dispensation  outside  of  the  Church  does 
not  mean  that  one  shall  not  have  in  another 
dispensation  a  place  in  the  kingdom.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  shall  do  well  to  remember  that 
an  unworthy,  inactive,  selfish  member  of  the 
Church,  however  closely  he  may  here  hold  to 
the  form  of  membership,  may  not  hope  to  fall 
back  in  another  age  to  life  under  an  older  cove- 
nant; the  Churchman  who  forfeits  his  relation- 
ship to  Christ  in  the  Church,  forfeits  of  neces- 
sity his  relationship  to  God  in  the  kingdom. 

2.  A  man's  relationship  to  God — and  that  is, 
after  all,  the  important  thing — does  not  depend 
alone  on  what  he  does,  on  the  manner  and  tone 
of  his  life.     External  deeds  are  oftentimes  the 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  129 

only  tests  that  we  can  apply;  and  by  what  we 
call  fruits,  though  they  are  often  but  flowers  or 
leaves  or  even  excrescences,  we  base  our  judg- 
ments of  men.  But  often  the  external  deed, 
the  result  of  an  impulse,  is  not  the  fair  test. 
Rather,  if  only  we  knew  what  the  man  really  is, 
what  is  in  the  depth  of  his  soul  his  relation  to 
God,  we  should  know  the  man;  and  sometimes 
it  is  given  us  to  learn  just  this,  and  to  be  assured 
of  a  reality  of  character  which  has  not  as  yet 
gained  full  control  of  the  life.  This  reality  of 
character,  based  on  a  personal  relationship,  is 
to  be  sought  in  the  Church,  where  the  relation- 
ship is  early  established  and  the  character  is 
in  its  long  process  of  development.  In  every 
nation  there  are  those  who  fear  God  and  work 
righteousness,  and  they  are  for  this  reason 
acceptable  with  Him;  "  acceptable,"  SexTOi,* 
not  yet  accepted;  candidates  in  preparation  for 
admission  to  the  blessed  company  of  His  chosen 
ones.  It  is  a  specially  urgent  duty  for  us,  in  this 
age  and  in  our  land,  to  see  that  those  who  are 
thus  acceptable  do  hear  the  voice  which  calls 
them  to  personal  relationship,  to  personal  bless- 
ing, and  to  personal  service. 

3.  There  are  tests  of  Church  membership — 
I  trust  that  you  will  understand  me  if  I  call 
them  tests  of  Churchmanship — which  are  shown 

*  Acts  X.  85. 


130    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

with  special  clearness  and  solemnity  in  St. 
John's  first  Epistle.  They  are,  as  I  said,  tests 
not  definitions;  and  they  have  to  deal  not  with 
the  beginning  of  membership,  but  with  progress 
in  it.  "  Whosoever  hath  been  begotten  of  God 
is  not  a  doer  of  sin,  for  His  seed  abideth  in  him, 
and  he  cannot  be  a  sinner  because  he  hath  been 
begotten  of  God."  "  We  know  that  whoso- 
ever hath  been  begotten  of  God  is  not  a  sinner, 
.  .  .  and  the  wicked  one  doth  not  touch  him."  * 
The  words,  the  precise  form  of  which  ought 
to  be  carefully  weighed,  speak  of  the  regenerate 
man,  in  whom  the  gift  or  grace  of  regeneration 
has  become  an  abiding  possession;  they  declare 
that  sin  is  utterly  opposed  to  the  life  which  is 
in  him  and  to  its  rule  and  purpose.  They  warn 
us  not  to  trust  to  a  righteous  act  m  our  lives, 
however  mighty,  if  it  has  not  grown  to  be  in  us 
a  living  power;  they  teach  us  that  the  sinless 
life,  the  life  of  holiness,  is  for  us  the  only  normal 
life.  They  bid  us  hold  fast  to  the  conviction 
that  the  life  in  the  covenant,  the  fully  sacra- 
mental life,  is  that  which  is  conformed  to  the  per- 
fect life  of  Him  who  is  the  Head  of  the  Church, 
the  Head  of  every  member  of  the  Church.  We 
dare  not  ask  what  is  sufficient  on  God's  part 
or  on  ours  for  our  salvation,  that  is  to  say  our 
perfection;  rather  we  would  seek  that  in  all  we 
think  or  say  or  do  we  may  come  nearer  to  the 

*  I.  John  iii.  9;  V.  16. 


LIFE  AND  MEMBERSHIP  131 

measure   of   the   stature   of   the   fulness   of   the 
perfect  Man,  our  Master  and  our  Lord. 

Still  we  need  to  listen  for  His  word;  still  we 
need  to  quicken  our  belief,  our  faith  in  Him; 
still  we  need  to  hve  in  the  promise  of  that  Holy 
Spirit  by  Whom  we  were  sealed  and  in  Whom 
we  have  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance. 


Lecture  V 
WORK  AND  RELATIONS 

Ephesians  i.  22. 

Kal  irdvra  inrdra^ev  iirb  Toi>s  ir6Sas  airrov^  Kal  a&rbv  ^SwKev  K€<pa\iiv 
6wip  Tvivra  t%  iKK\7j<rl(}. 

"And  He  hath  subjected  the  universe  under  His  feet,  and 
hath  put  Him  as  head  over  the  universe  for  the  Church."  ("hath 
given  Him  to  the  Church  as  head  over  the  universe.") 


We  may  now,  having  studied  in  outline  The 
Plan  and  Preparation,  the  Establishing  and 
Furnishing,  the  Constitution  and  Ordering,  the 
Life  and  Membership,  of  the  Church,  pass  to  the 
consideration  of  its  Work  and  of  its  relation  to 
the  World.  And  herein  we  must  look  at  its 
work  as  well  for  itself  as  for  those  without,  for 
whom  it  is  specially  bidden  to  care,  and  also  at 
the  World  in  the  two-fold  sense  of  the  word, 
as  the  field  in  which  the  seed  of  God's  truth  is 
to  be  sown  and  harvested  and  as  the  power  which 
arrays  itself  for  warfare  against  God's  truth. 
The  whole  inquiry  is  full  of  interest,  even  though 
it  deals  with  difficult  problems,  both  theoretical 
and  practical. 

132 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  133 

1.  First,  then,  we  ask  ourselves,  What  is  the 
Church  to  do?  For  what  is  she  adapted  and 
furnished?  What  are  the  results  which  she  seeks 
to  attain?  What  is  her  ideal  for  herself,  her 
"  ardent  longing  "  for  the  world? 

Doubtless — though  perhaps  not  to  all  people 
evidently — ^her  first  duty  is  to  live  with  the  life 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  and  in  that  life  to  grow  to 
perfection.  She  is  to  furnish  herself,  through 
processes  of  growth,  by  study  and  by  practice, 
for  the  fulness  of  life  both  in  receptivity  and  in 
the  exercise  of  the  powers  which  have  been  granted 
her.  For  there  must  needs  be  a  progress  marking 
each  period  in  her  existence.  Her  destiny  is 
far  beyond  any  endowment  which  she  has  yet 
received,  or  at  least  has  received  in  such  wise 
as  to  use  it;  nay,  her  present  imperative  duties 
are  beyond  her  present  powers  to  execute.  She 
has  more  to  do,  she  has  more  to  be,  than  she 
can  as  yet  do  and  be:  and  it  is  her  duty  to  grow 
in  powers  and  habits  both  of  reception  and  of 
action.  "  The  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fulness  of  Christ  " — towards  this  she  must  be 
ever  making  progress. 

Now  for  this  the  Church  needs  to  give  herself 
largely  to  worship;  not  merely  to  intercession 
or  to  prayer,  but  to  the  worship  which  is  the  basis 
of  both  and  transcends  both.  In  that  worship 
is  her  inner  Hfe,  her  close  communion  with  God; 
and  the  time  is  not  ill-spent  which   she  gives 


134    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

as  a  body  to  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ  through  the  Spirit.  It  brings 
encouragement  for  duty  and  refreshment  after 
labor;  in  it  is  the  real  progress,  without  which 
no  other  effort  can  avail;  and  when  we  forget 
this  or  are  impatient  at  the  demands  which  it 
makes  upon  our  energy  and  our  time,  we  lose 
far  more  than  by  any  activity  we  can  possibly 
gain.  Let  not  the  Church  be  ashamed — let  not 
us  be  ashamed  for  the  Church — to  demand  and 
to  give  our  best  of  time  and  strength  to  the  in- 
crease and  strengthening  of  spiritual  life  in  the 
special  way  in  which  that  life  is  to  be  strength- 
ened and  increased.  Let  not  the  Church  forget 
that  her  first  duty  in  the  sight  of  her  great  Head 
is  that  of  which  the  world  can  never  judge, 
which  the  world  can  scarce  see,  her  continuing 
and  progressing  in  the  life  of  God. 

The  Church,  too,  must  grow  by  seeking  for  new 
members  and  admitting  them  to  her  fellowship, 
as  well  in  lands  where  Christ  is  but  newly  named 
and  where  His  first  disciples  must  be  those  of 
riper  years  as  in  those  in  which  infants  are  by 
custom  and  by  choice  brought  early  to  her  mem- 
bership; and  she  must  grow  by  making  her 
members,  whenever  and  however  admitted,  better 
children,  better  youths  and  maidens,  better 
men  and  women.  If  they  have  been  called, 
they  are  to  learn  to  look  upon  themselves  as  chosen 
and    to    approve    themselves    as    faithful.     This 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  135 

is  her  pastoral  work  and  duty,  which  no  human 
plan,  however  elaborately  devised  or  attractively 
displayed,  ought  ever  to  set  aside;  the  Church 
is  to  lead  her  members  along  the  way  of  their 
salvation,  their  perfection. 

For  in  worship  and  in  holy  living  the  Church 
grows  to  be,  with  Christ  and  in  Christ,  the 
ideal  Man,  having  indeed  many  members  with 
varying  offices,  but  progressing  in  strength  and 
holiness  as  each  member,  doing  his  several  part 
for  the  benefit  of  the  whole,  advances  in  the  strong 
and  holy  life  of  Christ  ministered  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Thus  the  Body  is  to  attain  its  full  stat- 
ure and  harmonious  development;  thus  the 
Temple  is  to  be  made  "  magnifical "  for  the 
worship  which  in  it  is  to  be  rendered;  thus  the 
City  is  to  be  builded  of  prepared  stones  and 
fashioned  by  the  skill  of  the  master-builder; 
thus  the  Kingdom  is  to  be  the  righteous  realm 
in  which  the  righteousness  of  the  King  is  to  be 
manifested  in  the  free  righteousness  of  the 
citizens;  thus  in  fine  the  Church  of  God  must 
live  and  grow  according  to  the  law  of  her  being, 
the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

2.  It  belongs  also  to  the  Church  that  it  should 
call  the  world,  and  bring  the  world,  to  God. 
The  world,  as  it  is  the  living  world  of  man,  is 
the  object  of  God's  love.  He  made  man  in  His 
own  image,  with  a  capacity  for  His  grace  and  an 


136    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

ability  of  growing  into  His  likeness;  and  when 
man  wilfully  fell  away  from  Him,  He  forsook 
not  the  work  of  His  hands,  but  by  many  admir- 
able methods  He  visited  the  world,  that  He 
might  prepare  redemption  for  His  people.  Yea, 
so  did  He  love  the  world,  that  He  made  ready 
for  His  Son  to  come  into  it  as  the  Redeemer, 
and  sanctified  (consecrated)  His  Son  that  He 
might  be  sent  by  Him  into  the  world.  It  was, 
in  His  sight,  worth  saving  and  capable  of  salva- 
tion. One  great  purpose  of  the  Church  of  the 
Old  Covenant,  and  the  essential  purpose  of  the 
Church  of  the  New  Covenant,  was  and  is  that 
God's  love  may  be  so  clearly  taught  and  so 
attractively  presented  to  man,  that  God  may 
gain  the  love  of  the  world.  The  Gospel  which 
the  Church  proclaims  and  is  to  proclaim  is  the 
Gospel  of  the  world's  redemption. 

But,  in  another  view,  the  world  stands  in  oppo- 
sition to  God  and  His  Gospel.  The  same  Apostle 
who  wrote  as  from  the  Lord's  lips  the  "  com- 
fortable word  "  of  which  we  were  just  speaking, 
wrote  also  most  solemnly  to  those  who  had  re- 
ceived the  word  of  God  and  who  had  by  it  over- 
come the  evil  one  that  they  must  not  love  the 
world  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world, 
because  the  love  of  the  world  is  inconsistent 
with  the  love  of  the  Father.  It  needs  little 
argument,  however,  but  rather  an  insight  into 
the  great  and  merciful  purposes  of  God  as  they 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  137 

are  revealed  in  Christ,  to  see  that  while  it  is  a 
part  of  our  duty  to  God  that  we  should  not 
accept  the  principles  of  the  world  as  it  stands 
estranged  from  God,  and  should  not  fall  under 
the  influence  of  that  estrangement,  we  yet 
should  enter  into  that  love  of  God  which  reaches 
out  to  the  world  of  His  creation  and  provides  for 
its  redemption.  In  the  very  epistle  from  which 
we  are  taking  our  texts  we  read  the  key  to  the 
problem:  "But  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy, 
for  His  great  love  wherewith  He  loved  us  even 
when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  gave  life  to  us." 
And  because  of  this  love,  nay  as  a  part  of  the 
working  of  this  love,  the  Church  must  call  the 
world  to  the  Father  by  the  inspiration  of  the 
Spirit  of  the  Father.  For  the  world  is  the  field 
of  that  kingdom  which  God  has  destined  and 
prepared  for  His  Son;  and  it  is  His  will  that 
the  world-kingdom  shall  become  the  Christ- 
kingdom.  Into  this  the  Church  is  to  call  the 
world;  and  at  least  the  elect  and  the  first-fruits 
from  the  world  are  to  be  brought  within  the 
Church  and  to  take  a  part  in  calling  the  rest  into 
the  kingdom.  The  Church — to  use  another  figure 
— is  for  the  world  a  herald,  as  it  evangelizes  and 
makes  proclamation  of  God's  love;  and  then, 
if  it  may  be,  a  prophet  to  teach  the  world  how 
to  live  in  God's  love.  And  this  she  does  by  her 
very  existence,  by  the  example  which  she  sets, 
and    by    her    direct    action    upon    individuals; 


138    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

mighty   agencies,   on  the  working  of  which  we 
cannot  now  dwell. 

3.  It  is  the  Church's  duty  also  to  give  help 
to  the  world,  to  be  among  mankind  as  one  who 
serveth,  even  as  Christ  was  among  His  disciples 
while  He  was  here  on  earth.  The  world,  even 
as  the  world,  has  good  impulses,  earnest  desires, 
powers  that  work  for  righteousness,  noble  traits 
of  character;  upon  these  any  religion  with  a 
trace  of  truth  may  lay  foundations,  and  the 
religion  of  Christ,  with  its  absolute  truth,  may 
build  up  a  holy  temple  worthy  to  be  consecrated 
to  the  Father  in  Christ.  To  accomplish  this, 
or  even  to  make  a  beginning,  the  Church  must 
freely  offer  to  the  world  her  help;  and  the  offer 
must  be  made  not  by  way  of  condescension  or 
as  reaching  dowTi  from  a  high  position  into  a 
place  on  which  the  foot  may  not  tread  and 
which  the  finger  may  scarce  touch.  The  very 
life  of  the  Church  must,  intentionally  and  sym- 
pathetically and  really,  enter  the  world,  and  must 
bring  help  wliere  it  is  not  asked  and  often  where 
for  a  while  it  will  not  be  noticed.  If  the  Church 
can  become  the  soul  of  the  world,  the  world  will 
soon  be  a  fit  object  of  the  Father's  love,  even  as 
the  forgiven  sinner  who  has  entered  into  the 
Church  finds  the  Holy  Spirit  possessing  his  soul 
and  assuring  him  of  his  reconciliation.  This 
is  no  easy  thing  to  do  rightly;  there  is  the  double 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  139 

danger  of  so  entering  into  the  life  of  the  world 
as  to  accept  its  principles  and  fail  to  attempt 
their  reformation,  and  (as  the  opposite  of  this) 
of  holding  ourselves  so  far  above  the  world  in 
its  need  of  reformation  that  we  cannot  even 
hear  its  voice  calling  to  us.  The  Church  has 
doubly  erred;  we  have  doubly  erred;  yet  still 
our  duty  remains  that  we  shall  not  only  carry 
a  message  in  Christ's  name  to  those  who  are 
not  as  yet  in  covenant  relation  to  Him,  but  shall 
also  take  them  by  the  hand  and  lead  them  to 
Him.  For  the  universe  is  His;  and  He  is  the 
Head  over  the  universe,  and  specially  the  world 
of  man,  for  the  Church. 

II 

1.  If  this  is  the  Church's  work  and  duty — 
to  perfect  herself,  to  call  the  world,  to  serve 
the  world — we  must  ask,  What  has  the  Church 
done,  and  what  is  she  doing  .^^  and  what  lessons 
does  she  need  to  learn  as  to  that  which  she 
ought  to  do  and  can  do?  The  answer  given 
by  any  thoughtful  and  earnest  man  cannot  be 
at  first  very  satisfactory  or  encouraging.  "  The 
reproach  of  the  Gospel  "  lies  heavy  on  the  history 
of  the  Church.  After  long  preparation,  when 
the  fulness  of  the  times  had  come,  the  Son  of 
God  took  man's  nature,  lived  among  men  as 
example  and  prophet,  suffered  the  death  of  the 
Redeemer  of  mankind,  rose  from  the  dead  and 


140    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

ascended,  and  sent  to  His  Apostles  and  to  His 
Church,  over  which  He  put  them  in  charge, 
the  mighty  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  teach 
and  guide  and  strengthen  them  for  every  need. 
What  could  have  been  expected,  we  say,  less  than 
the  speedy  conversion  of  the  world  to  God  as 
revealed  in  Christ?  We  should  have  looked  for 
the  acceptance  of  the  new  covenant  by  those 
who  had  lived  under  the  election  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  also  by  the  nations  whose  was 
the  more  ancient  universal  covenant.  We  should 
have  expected  to  see  presently  a  new  world — 
new  in  belief,  in  character,  and  in  life;  the  parts 
of  the  earth  which  apostles  and  apostolic  men 
could  reach  would  soon  have  heard  and  accepted 
the  Gospel  message,  and  when  new  lands  were 
discovered  their  inhabitants  would  soon  have 
found  their  place  in  the  Church.  The  prophe- 
cies of  old,  and  in  particular  those  which  were 
inspired  by  the  return  from  the  great  captivity, 
would  have  been  fulfilled;  the  age  of  peace 
and  righteousness  and  holiness  would  have  begun, 
never  to  cease  until  the  Lord  should  return 
to  crown  the  work  of  His  Church  and  enter  upon 
His  fully  manifested  kingdom. 

Nearly  twenty  centuries  have  passed,  and  the 
visions  inspired  by  the  "  new  order  of  the  ages  " 
have  not  had  their  fulfilment  on  earth.  "  Modern 
Christianity  a  Civilized  Heathenism":  under 
this  title  an  earnest  man   wrote  a  generation  or 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  141 

so  ago,  and  shamed  us  even  when  we  thought 
that  we  were  answering  him.  "  The  Reproach 
of  the  Gospel  ":  so  the  Bampton  Lectures  of 
eight  years  ago  bade  us  read  the  lesson  of  the 
Church's  history.  With  centuries  of  prepara- 
tion, with  the  completion  of  the  times  awaited 
and  given  an  immediate  response,  with  the  needs 
of  men  felt  and  acknowledged  as  never  before, 
with  the  most  exact  correspondence  to  all  those 
needs,  with  the  vigor  of  a  new  life  acknowledged 
to  be  irresistible,  with  early  years  of  enthusiasm 
and  following  years  of  victory  for  the  truth, 
with  unique  opportunities  and  marvellous  power 
to  meet  them,  the  Church  must  face  the  insistent 
question.  What  has  been  done,  what  is  now  doing 
at  all  commensurate  to  this?  Is  our  modern 
Christianity  really  better  than  heathenism  except 
for  the  veneer  which  we  call  civilization?  Are 
the  words  of  the  Gospel  a  reproach  to  that 
divinely  framed  and  furnished  organism  of  which 
the  early  Christians  hoped  that  it  would  ac- 
complish the  deliverance  of  man  from  the  tyranny 
of  sin  through  the  power  of  the  all-holy  Spirit? 
Suppose  that  some  celestial  being,  of  keen  sense 
of  observation  but  ignorant  of  the  progress  of 
events  on  this  earth  except  for  that  which  he 
could  directly  see  and  hear — suppose  that  such 
an  one  had  visited  our  planet  at  intervals  of  a 
quarter  millennium,  seven  times  now  since  the 
Lord's    death   and    ascension;     how    would    the 


142    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Church's  history  read,  what  would  it  prove,  to 
him?  The  successive  dates  250,  500,  750,  1000, 
1250,  1500,  1750,  remind  us  of  the  importance 
of  each  period,  of  some  distinguishing  mark  or 
appellation  for  each,  of  new  attacks,  new  defences, 
new  hopes,  recurrent  disappointments;  but  for 
the  moment  at  least,  we  hear  the  angel  saying, 
Is  this  all?  Was  the  scheme  propounded  bj^  the 
Nazarene  impossible  of  execution  or  at  most 
impracticable?  Was  His  revelation,  His  teach- 
ing. His  exhortation,  only  for  an  interim,  beyond 
which  His  knowledge  did  not  pass,  so  that  His 
hopes  were  indistinct  if  not  fallacious?  There 
are  those  who  tell  us  this  with  honest  persua- 
sion or  even  with  glad  satisfaction.  And  we  are 
hard  put  to  it  in  this  time  of  world  distress, 
while  a  dispensation  is  drawing,  as  it  seems, 
to  an  end;  we  are  forced  to  acknowledge  that  in 
appearance  the  result  is  not  correspondent  to 
the  beginning,  the  work  to  the  energy  which 
has  been  applied. 

2.  Such  questions  as  these  cannot  but  set  us 
to  thinking;  for  we  feel  that  if  they  are  really 
fair — and  this  they  seem  to  be — they  deserve 
and  must  have  an  adequate  reply.  But  no 
sooner  have  we  said  this  tlian  we  begin  to  doubt 
whether  the  questions  are  quite  pertinent  to  the 
matter  in  hand.  The  Church  is  a  spiritual  body 
of  men  gathered  under  the  laws  of  a  heavenly 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  143 

kingdom,  whose  King  is  the  glorified  Incarnate 
Son  of  God.  His  kingdom,  in  its  present  mani- 
festation, is  on  earth,  and  its  operations  in  so 
far  as  we  take  part  in  them  have  earthly  sur- 
roundings. But  only  a  small  part  of  the  members 
of  the  kingdom  are  in  this  preparatory  state  of 
existence;  their  number  is  almost  infinitesimal 
if  we  compare  it  with  the  number  of  those  who, 
having  passed  a  longer  or  shorter  probation  here, 
are  under  God's  special  care  and  training  in  the 
world  of  the  dead,  and  in  some  way  (we  can  hardly 
doubt)  influencing  the  life  of  the  great  body  of 
which  they  are  a  part.  Even  granting  what 
we  may  well  think  true,  that  the  actively  serving 
Church— and  perhaps  the  actively  worshipping 
Church— is  the  Church  which  has  for  its  members 
men  in  their  full  humanity  and  not  yet  fallen 
under  the  power  of  death,  we  cannot  rightly 
judge  the  Church's  life  if  we  ignore  that  large  part 
of  it  which  is  lived  under  the  limitations  of  the 
expectant  world.  Could  we  but  gather  into  one 
the  whole  state  of  Christ's  Church,  not  militant 
only,  but  ex-pectant,  and  it  may  be  in  some  of 
its  members  co-operant  with  its  exalted  Head, 
we  should  get  a  different  picture  from  that  in 
which  we  see  results  from  lives  the  years  of 
whose  active  service  have  been  few  while  so  much 
of  their  energy  in  that  short  time  has  of  neces- 
sity been  given  to  the  growth  and  discipline  of 
their  own  active  powers.    We  should  see  results. 


144    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

perhaps  not  attained  but  assured,  which  would 
atone  for  much  that  here  would  otherwise  have 
been  adjudged  scanty  success  even  if  it  were 
not  condemned  as  failure.  Christ  and  His  Church 
would  certainly  be  justified  for  much  patience 
and  hope,  much  faith  and  charity. 

But  quite  apart  from  this,  to  which  we  cannot 
appeal  except  in  reply  to  those  who  really  believe 
in  the  Lord  and  in  His  unfailing  care  for  His 
own,  we  may  well  remind  ourselves  that  many 
of  the  tests  which  we  apply  are  tests  so  distinctly 
earthly  and  speaking  of  the  earth  that  they 
bring  forth  but  a  negative  response  from  things 
heavenly  and  spiritual.  The  principle  of  success, 
of  success  measured  or  measurable  in  the  eyes 
of  men,  is  not  a  principle  to  be  applied  to  the 
growth  of  a  soul  in  holiness  or  to  the  progress  of 
the  Christian  society.  Renewal  is  not  to  be 
brought  about  solely  by  externally  applied  in- 
fluences; it  must  be,  as  St.  Paul  said,  "renewal 
in  the  spirit  of  the  mind  ";  even  as  the  physician, 
though  he  judges  of  the  nature  and  the  progress 
of  a  disease  by  its  symptoms,  does  not  set  about 
to  cure  it  by  repressing  the  symptoms,  seeking 
to  make  a  fair  exterior  while  (as  we  say)  he 
drives  the  disease  within  and  increases  its  viru- 
lence and  power.  Some  apparent  failures  and 
defects,  like  some  open  wounds,  are  really  signs 
of  healing,  of  renewal  begun,  of  restoration  fairly 
assured.     Many  a  beginning  in  grace  and  char- 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  145 

acter  is  more  than  half  of  the  work  of  restoration. 
Principles  honestly  accepted  and  made  ideals, 
though  not  always  followed,  are  better  than 
rules  accepted  but  as  rules,  barely  affording  any 
strength  to  the  character. 

Consider  also  that  the  victory  of  Christ's 
religion  must  be  a  moral  victory,  and  must  be 
based  on  a  change  necessarily  slow  even  when  it 
is  most  evidently  progressive;  that  the  patience 
of  waiting — a  divine  grace,  for  is  not  the  Incar- 
nate Son  now  these  long  years  waiting  for  that 
which  men  might  say  He  could  accomplish  at 
any  moment? — that  the  divine  grace  of  patience 
must  be  long  exercised  in  the  life  of  the  soul  as 
well  as  in  the  operations  of  nature;  that  the 
test  of  any  progressive  work  is  in  its  end,  and 
that  to  test  its  growth  in  order  to  measure  it 
or  to  question  it  is  almost  certainly  to  bring 
it  to  an  end. 

3.  All  this,  however,  is  in  a  way  but  negative; 
let  us  put  our  question  in  a  positive  form,  and  it 
will  demand  a  positive  and  optimistic  answer. 
Is  not  the  Church  in  the  world  better  than  the 
world  itself. 5^  Is  not  the  world  itself  better  be- 
cause of  the  Church  which  is  in  it.^*  We  cannot 
hesitate  long  as  to  our  reply.  There  have  been 
many  changes  in  the  world  of  man  since  the  day 
when  the  Gospel  was  first  preached  and  those 
who    believed    its    message    joined    themselves 


146    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHUKCH 

to  the  Apostles  of  Christ.  What  we  call  the 
civihzed  world  has  adopted  new  standards  and 
new  methods  of  life;  it  has  extended  its  borders 
and  carried  those  standards  and  the  teaching  of 
those  methods  to  nations  who  had  been  thought 
outside  the  limits  of  humanity ;  and  these  nations 
have  learned  that,  if  they  would  be  accounted 
civilized,  they  must  accept  some  of  the  teachings 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Both  within  and 
without  the  pale  of  the  older  empires,  men  have 
learned  to  honor  qualities  of  life  and  character 
which  they  had  thought  despicable  and  to  think 
lightly  of  some  which  they  had  held  in  esteem; 
'  humility  '  has  become  a  virtue  and  *  ambition  ' 
a  fault  so  serious  that  it  may  well  be  called  a 
crime.  The  world  expects  to-day  of  men  and  of 
nations  a  course  of  conduct  based  on  the  life  and 
the  precepts  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth;  and 
it  stands  amazed  and  indignant  when  individuals 
and  peoples  fall  back  from  it  to  the  brutality  of  a 
non-Christian  age,  a  method  of  dealing  with  foes 
marked  by  inhuman  cruelty.  There  is  a  better 
air  than  of  old  which  men  may  breathe;  and 
though  at  times  a  deadly  miasma  settles  around 
us,  we  are  sure  that  above  it  the  air  is  whole- 
some and  clear.  The  Church  has  at  least  brought 
a  high  estimation  of  that  which  is  really  worth 
while,  and  a  desire  on  the  part  of  all  men,  when 
they  are  at  their  best,  to  deserve  it  and  attain  it; 
and  perhaps  that  is  as  much  as  we  ought  to  expect 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  147 

from  a  righteous  power  working  for  less  than 
twenty  centuries  against  entrenched  and  strongly 
supported  forces  of  evil. 

Ill 

1.  Our  discourse  has  been  thus  far  rather  of 
the  Church  and  the  world  as  standing  opposite 
to  each  other,  or  at  least  as  having  different 
spheres  of  action  and  different  principles  for 
their  guidance.  We  ought  also  to  consider  the 
world  as  God's  world,  having  its  duties  and  its 
operations  in  matters  which  concern  its  own 
well-being,  in  that  aspect  in  which  w^e  may  rightly 
call  it  the  State.  There  are,  in  fact,  besides 
the  Church,  two  institutions  or  organizations 
in  which  men  find  themselves  and  with  which 
they  have  to  do,  the  state  and  the  family.  We 
ought  to  consider,  as  coming  within  the  subject 
of  to-day's  lecture,  whether  these  are  rightly 
co-ordinate  with  the  Church,  or  whether  their 
functions  of  life  and  progress  ought  to  be  looked 
upon  as  included  within  hers  and  subject  to  her 
guidance  and  control.  Without  doubt  her  prin- 
ciples and  her  teaching  apply  to  all  human  rela- 
tions and  to  all  phases  of  men's  conduct;  it  is 
hers  especially  to  emphasize  the  lessons  of  duty 
and  to  justify  them  as  the  varied  expressions 
of  principle.  There  is,  it  needs  not  be  said,  a 
distinctly  religious  element  in  every  adequate 
conception  of  the  family;  the  parent  stands  to  the 


148    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

little  child  in  the  place  of  God,  and  a  divine 
sanction  attaches  to  the  parent's  instruction 
and  guidance;  his  teachings  are  to  the  child 
infallible,  his  commands  are  not  only  positive 
but  also  righteous.  In  the  ideal  relationship 
of  father  and  mother  with  son  and  daughter, 
this  continues;  and  it  is  confirmed  by  the  rela- 
tion on  each  side  to  Christ  and  to  God  as  this  is 
gradually  recognized  by  the  growing  intellect 
and  spirit.  Yet  even  here  the  Church  must 
leave  somewhat  to  the  parent's  responsibility, 
and  for  a  time  at  least  even  her  strongest  exhorta- 
tions may  be  stayed  by  the  parent's  judgment. 
In  like  manner  it  is  with  the  State.  God  has 
set  some  in  "  station  and  governance  "  over  us; 
or  in  words  of  a  more  republican  sound,  "  in 
God's  name  we  entrust  some  with  the  authority 
of  government  ";  and  matters  of  civil  and  legal 
righteousness,  the  righteousness  of  citizens  as 
such  which  can  be  determined  by  law,  pertain 
to  them.  They  should  indeed  be  Christian 
men,  and  they  should  apply  in  matters  of  law  the 
lessons  which  they  have  learned  from  the  Gospel; 
but,  as  our  Article  says,  "  the  civil  precepts  of 
the  Mosaic  law  should  not  of  necessity  be  received 
in  any  commonwealth,"  nor  is  it  at  all  of  necessity 
that  the  civil  polity  to  which  St.  Paul  appealed 
for  justice  and  to  which  he  bade  his  disciples  be 
subject  should  be  maintained  or  even  willingly 
accepted    by    the    Christians    of    all   time.     The 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  149 

state,  as  the  state,  has  duties  and  responsibilities, 
partly  well  defined  and  partly  the  varying  appli- 
cation of  principles,  which  the  Church,  as  the 
Church,  may  not  specifically  direct. 

2.  In  fact  ecclesiocracy,  if  one  may  use  the 
word,  is  intolerable  as  a  form  or  a  principle  of  civil 
government.  Presbyterianism  seems  to  have  a 
strong  desire  to  take  in  hand  the  ordering  of 
states,  perhaps  from  the  rigidity  with  which  it 
has  held  and  taught  and  practised  Calvinism. 
We  have  before  us  the  example  of  its  tyranny 
at  Geneva;  we  remember  how  England  sub- 
mitted to  it,  and  after  fifteen  years  was  glad  to 
restore  the  Stuarts  with  all  their  proven  and 
all  their  dreaded  faults;  we  are  told  as  a  lesson 
for  Englishmen  of  to-day  that  "  the  non-con- 
formist Churches  owe  nothing  but  unhelpful 
political  memories  to  the  presbyterian  experi- 
ment." In  Massachusetts,  where  the  ministers 
really  ruled,  they  urged  on  the  magistrates  to 
cruel  inquisitions  and  more  cruel  punishments 
for  the  unfortunate  beings  who  were  charged 
with  witchcraft;  in  Connecticut,  where  the  civil 
authority  held  its  due  place,  the  ministers  when 
asked  for  advice  gave  it  with  such  wisdom  and 
common-sense  that  the  colony  was  almost  quite 
saved  from  the  ignominy  of  judicial  murder  in 
these  unfortunate  cases.  The  Church  must 
indeed,  as  has  been  already  said,  teach  duty  to 


150    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

the  state,  or  rather  to  the  several  members  of 
the  state,  those  especially  who  bear  the  re- 
sponsibility of  administration;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  the  civil  authority  is  "in  all  causes  and 
over  all  persons  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil 
within  its  jurisdiction  supreme  ";  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  state,  a  duty  formally  recognized  by  all 
well-ordered  communities,  to  see  that  the  civil 
affairs  of  the  Church  are  righteoush'  adminis- 
tered. 

3.  The  Church,  therefore,  is  not  furnished, 
as  her  Lord  while  He  was  on  earth  was  not 
furnished,  to  be  "  a  judge  or  a  divider  "  among 
men;  but  she  can  prepare  men  to  be  judges 
and  dividers,  both  faithful  and  just,  among 
their  fellows.  The  Elizabethan  hypothesis  is 
not  true  now,  in  England  or  the  United  States  or 
anywhere  else;  if  it  had  not  been  affirmed  by  the 
eloquence  of  the  judicious  Hooker  it  would 
hardly  have  been  accepted  as  true  in  the  days  of 
the  great  Queen:  no  commonwealth  is  made  up 
of  one  body  of  men,  who  from  the  spiritual  and 
religious  view  may  be  called  the  Church  of  the 
land  and  from  the  judicial  and  political  view 
may  be  called  the  civil  estate  of  the  land.  The 
state  has  its  place  and  its  duties,  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  which  the  Church  may  in  no  wise 
interfere  with  the  arm  of  force  or  rebellion, 
though  it  may  be  the  duty  of  some  of  her  members 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  161 

to  bear  the  sword  in  assertion  or  defence  of 
civil  righteousness  and  justice;  the  Church  too 
has  its  place  and  its  duties,  which  she  may  not 
maintain  in  the  same  way,  but  which  all  her  mem- 
bers should  hold  for  themselves  and  for  the 
community  of  which  also  they  are  members,  in  the 
firm  assurance  that  nought  but  righteousness 
and  God's  blessing  upon  it  can  ever  exalt  a  nation. 
The  world — the  State — can  teach  some  lessons 
to  the  Church,  as  the  Church  can  teach  some 
lessons  to  the  world.  Blessed  is  the  community 
in  which  this  instruction  is  righteously  given, 
gladly  received,  and  humbly  followed. 


IV 

We  can  now  come  back  to  see  how  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Church's  place  in  the  world 
helps  us  to  understand  better  the  three  items, 
if  they  may  be  so  called,  in  God's  great  revela- 
tion. They  are,  you  will  remember.  Truth  and 
Duty  and  Worship. 

1.  It  is  certainly  a  part  of  the  Church's  recog- 
nition of  her  duty  to  the  world,  that  she  should 
lead  into  and  in  truth.  And  the  truth  which 
the  Church  teaches  and  to  which  she  bears 
witness  is  not  merely  a  new  revelation  in  a  new 
book,  though  that  revelation  is  the  vision  of  the 
Incarnate  Son  of  God  and  that  book  contains 


152    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

the  Gospels,  the  Acts,  the  Epistles,  and  the 
Apocalypse.  The  Church,  made  the  keeper  and 
witness  of  this  new  revelation,  as  she  became 
by  inheritance  the  keeper  and  witness  of  the  old, 
opens  before  herself  and  bids  others  prepare 
to  look  upon  the  vision  of  truth,  the  knowledge 
of  reality.  That  reality  of  life,  of  knowledge,  of 
progress  attained  and  perfection  attainable,  is 
reached  by  the  human  soul  as  it  is  attuned  to  it, 
seeks  it,  and  surrenders  itself  to  it.  It  comes  from 
the  unveiling  of  God  as  He  is  made  known  by 
His  words  and  His  works  and  in  His  Son,  towards 
Whose  likeness  men  advance  as  they  learn  of 
Him  and  love  Him.  It  is,  in  no  technical  sense 
but  in  full  reality  the  result  of  the  study  of 
Theology — that  great  science  which  treats  of 
God  and  of  all  that  He  does.  The  call  comes  to 
us  to  learn  all  this  as  it  may  be  learned  in  Him 
Who  sums  up  in  Himself  all  that  can  be  revealed, 
in  this  stage  of  our  existence,  concerning  the 
heavenly  Father.  To  the  Church  there  is  opened 
by  the  Spirit  the  great  revelation,  far  greater, 
far  simpler  in  its  unit}',  far  more  complex  in  its 
application,  far  more  precious,  than  we  yet 
know.  The  Church  is  truly  Catholic  when  she 
welcomes  and  studies  and  teaches  all  this,  and 
makes  known  to  men  of  every  kindred  and  people 
and  nation  and  tongue  that  for  which  they  all 
are  waiting.  Only  from  the  Church  can  the  world 
learn  to  appreciate  and  to  appropriate  this  learn- 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  153 

ing,  this  wisdom;  she  is  the  great  university 
where  the  unity  of  all  knowledge  and  the  details 
of  every  branch  of  knowledge  are  taught  as 
belonging  to  life,  nay  as  necessary  for  the  gain- 
ing of  life  and  for  progress  in  it. 

2.  The  Church  also  owes  the  world  lessons  of 
duty,  instruction  in  both  the  knowledge  of  the 
moral  law  and  the  practice  of  its  precepts.     That 
duty  does  not  indeed  in  all  its  parts  await  the 
communication  of  a  distinct  revelation,  for  we 
do  not  assume  that  the  world  as  the  world  is 
without  any   conviction  of   what  it  is  wise  or 
expedient    or    necessary    to    do.     The    law    is 
written  in  lessons  of  experience,  in  conclusions 
from   natural   relations,    in   thought-out   convic- 
tions, in  the  conscience  often  instructed  in  ways 
of  which   we  know  little  or  nothing.     But  ex- 
perience   is    uncertain    and    far    from    uniform, 
natural  ties  are  strained  or  weakened  or  perhaps 
made  unduly  strong,  the  logic  of  the  untraned 
mind  yields  to  fallacies,  the  conscience  ma  -  be 
weakened  or  "  seared  with  a  hot  iron."     As  in 
Christianity  is  the  republication  of  natural  re- 
ligion as  well  as  the  first  publication  of  somewhat 
that  supplements  it,  so  the  Church  republishes 
the  law  written  in  the  hearts  of  men,  to  w^hich 
witness  has  been  borne  though  with  divers  im- 
perfections by  the  law  of  nature  and  of  man  and 
of  God,  which  has  been  recognized  by  individuals 


154    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  by  states,  and  which  has  vindicated  itself 
with  an  emphasis  peculiarly  its  own;  and  with 
this  she  declares  the  moral  law  as  its  extent 
and  its  power  were  made  known  on  the  mount 
of  the  Beatitudes  and  in  the  garden  of  the  Agony, 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  Temptation,  on  Hermon 
and  on  Olivet.  Thus  the  principles  of  duty 
are  shown,  those  from  obedience  to  which  no 
man  can  ever  be  exempt;  thus  the  methods  of 
the  application  are  suggested  and  exemplified; 
thus  the  supremacy  of  conscience  is  maintained, 
while  man  is  taught  to  see  that  it  is  guided  by 
God's  eternal  Spirit. 

3.  And  besides  all  this,  the  Church  can  teach 
the  world  its  hardest  lesson,  that  it  ought  to 
worship  and  that  it  can  worship.  The  solemn, 
serious,  real  acknowledgment  of  God;  the  recog- 
nition of  His  majesty  and  glory,  of  His  wis- 
dom and  power  and  goodness;  the  conscious 
entrance  into  His  presence;  the  offering  of  self 
to  Him  in  absolute  surrender;  the  laying  open 
of  the  heart  to  Him  in  penitence,  in  supplication, 
in  thanksgiving,  in  praise — the  world,  you  will 
acknowledge,  cannot  effect  this;  even  the  Church, 
save  in  her  saintliest  members,  does  not  know 
the  fulness  of  such  worship.  True;  but  the 
Church  does  offer  worship,  and  worship  too 
under  the  newlj^  revealed  name  of  God — Father, 
Son,   Spirit — and   her   worship   is   on   behalf   of 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  155 

the  universe,  the  destined  Head  over  which  is 
the  Christ,  while  she  is  to  act  for  it  and  on  its 
behalf.  The  world  will  not  learn  this  without 
being  strongly  drawn  to  her  and  through  her  to 
her  Lord.  Have  we  not  noted  from  time  to  time 
that  they  who  have  not  cared  much  for  the 
revelation  of  truth  or  for  lessons  in  duty  have 
been  moved  by  drawing  near  to  some  act  of 
solemn  worship  .^^  that  men  and  women  have 
been  led  to  ask  what  the  Church  had  to  teach 
them  or  what  they  ought  to  do,  after  listening 
to  the  words  of  our  oflSce  for  the  Burial  of  the 
Dead,  or  joining  as  far  as  they  could  in  the  lofty 
strains  of  a  Christmas  or  an  Easter  service? 
The  sacramental  worship  of  the  Church — I  do 
not  use  the  word  in  its  restricted  sense — does 
indeed  so  correspond  to  that  in  the  heavens 
that  it  lifts  even  the  untrained  worshipper  up 
to  the  heavenly  courts;  and  as  the  Church 
worships  she  not  only  represents  the  world  of 
men  and  the  whole  universe,  but  in  a  very  true 
way  she  brings  to  God  this  world  over  which 
He  has  made  His  Son  to  be  Head. 


The  Church's  duty  to  the  world  has  never 
been  quite  forgotten  or  quite  neglected,  though 
it  has  at  times  been  ill  appreciated  and  ill  dis- 
charged.    At    the    present    time    the    summons 


156    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

to  it,  at  least  in  some  of  its  aspects,  is  urgent, 
high  value  is  set  upon  it,  and  constant  attention 
is  demanded  for  it.  The  Church  is  not  allowed 
to  be  selfish;  she  is  almost  bidden  to  forget  that 
she  has  a  duty  to  herself. 

1.  Doubtless  it  is  well  that  we  are  reminded 
that  the  Church  of  Christ  has  been  set  in  the 
world  for  the  world's  benefit,  to  teach  it  truth 
and  duty,  and  to  bring  it  to  accept  and  use  great 
opportunities.  He  who  is,  and  is  to  prove  Him- 
self, the  Head  of  mankind,  has  called  and  organ- 
ized a  body  of  men,  has  furnished  it  for  service, 
and  has  bidden  it  render  that  service — His  ser- 
vice— to  the  world  of  man.  His  present  life 
and  his  present  work,  as  far  as  they  affect 
mankind,  are  manifested  through  that  Body; 
the  Church  stands  in  such  relation  to  Him  on 
the  one  side  and  to  the  world  on  the  other  that 
it  may  further  or  hinder  the  accomplishment 
of  His  great  plan  for  drawing  all  men — yea, 
all  things  made — unto  Himself.  The  influence 
and  power  of  the  Church  are  great;  they  are  in 
very  deed  felt  and  exercised,  and  they  are  ready 
for  further  use;  for  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  He 
is  the  Spirit  of  the  Incarnate  Son,  is  living  and 
working  in  the  elect  that  through  them  His 
life  and  energy  may  reach  the  rest  of  mankind. 
The  world — the  ignorant  world  and  the  indif- 
ferent world — must  reckon  with  the  Spirit's  life 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  157 

and  its  results,  as  indeed  it  does  reckon  with  it 
in  every  good  or  evil  act  seriously  undertaken, 
and  as  it  has  in  some  way  reckoned  with  it  since 
the  days  of  its  first  foundation  and  commission 
and  furnishing.  But  does  the  Church  seem  to 
take  seriously  into  account  its  relations  to  the 
world,  and  its  obligation  not  only  to  commend 
to  it  the  truth  and  power  of  which  it  is  the  cus- 
todian, but  also  to  enforce  the  application  of  both? 
They  are  a  new  truth  and  new  power,  even  at 
the  end  of  well-nigh  two  millennia,  for  not  even 
yet  are  they  fully  exhibited  and  commended. 
The  Church  has  great  need  to  learn  to  do  this 
part  of  her  duty  with  energy  and  gladness,  and 
to  draw  the  world  to  herself  and  through  her- 
self to  Christ  by  the  strength  and  the  beauty 
of  the  life  of  Christ  as  it  works  and  is  seen  in  her. 

2.  With  this  there  will  come  a  manifestation 
of  that  which  we  have  been  taught  to  confess 
in  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  an  application  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  that  it 
is  or  implies  or  results  in  the  Communion  of 
Saints.  In  our  ordinary  understanding  of  the 
words,  which  can  hardly  be  doubted  to  be  cor- 
rect, they  mean  that  the  members  of  the  Church, 
the  elect,  those  called  for  holiness  and  in  whom 
the  Spirit  of  holiness  is  living  and  working, 
have  a  common  life  and  share  one  with  another 
in  holy  things;   they  indicate  the  truth  which  in 


158    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

the  Nicene  Creed  is  condensed  in  the  word  One. 
If  perchance  they  are  right  who  think  that  at 
first  the  clause  was  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
sharing  of  Christian  men  in  holy  things,  their 
participation  in  grace,  in  sacraments,  in  the 
gifts  and  operations  of  the  Spirit,  the  confession 
is  of  a  like  truth.  There  is  the  union  of  many 
men,  some  on  earth,  more  in  the  abode  of  the 
righteous  dead,  in  one  body;  the  life,  the  action, 
the  work  are  one;  the  unity  in  the  Church, 
far  beyond  anything  that  is  human  or  tempo- 
rary, is  the  unity  which  is  the  highest  thought, 
the  noblest  hope,  of  the  seer,  the  scholar,  the 
divine  of  our  day. 

3.  All  this  is  still  preparation.  The  aim  of  the 
Church  is  not  directly  civilization,  not  a  universal 
empire  as  men  define  empire.  It  is  the  incor- 
poration of  each  soul  of  man  into  Christ,  as 
mankind  in  its  unity  was  incorporated  into 
Him  when  He  took  the  common  nature  of  all; 
that  as  He  is  the  Son  of  God  who  has  taken 
human  nature  to  Himself,  so  each  son  of  man 
may  in  Him  be  made  partaker  of  the  divine 
nature.  In  the  Church,  as  far  as  it  lives  its 
real  life,  there  is  the  constant  progress  towards 
the  greatest  of  all  conceivable  ideals.  To  be 
moving  and  working  towards  such  an  ideal  is 
a  greater  thing  than  to  seem  to  attain  it,  a  far 
greater   thing   than   to   think   that  it  has   been 


WORK  AND  RELATIONS  159 

attained.  God  hath  given  to  His  Son  to  have 
the  universe  subject  to  Him  and  hath  placed 
Him  as  Head  over  all  things  for  the  Church's 
sake.  Our  blessing,  our  duty,  is  to  further  that 
greatest  purpose  of  the  eternal  Wisdom  and  Good- 
ness and  Righteousness. 


Lecture  VI 

THE  FUTURE,  THE  BRIDE  AND  THE 
KINGDOM 

Ephesians  L  10,  11. 

ivaKf(pa\aid)ffaa$ai  t4  irdvra  iv  t<^  X/jicttv.  .  .  iv  <$  koI  iK\r]p<J>Oi]nti>. 

"To  bring  under  one  head  the  universe  in  Christ — in  Whom 
also  we  have  been  chosen  as  God's  portion." 


If  in  the  preceding  Lectures  of  this  week  we 
have  considered  at  all  rightly  the  Life  and  the 
Work  of  the  Church  in  her  present  state,  we 
may  with  some  confidence  approach  the  topic 
of  the  Church's  Destiny  in  that  which  remains 
of  the  present  dispensation  and  in  the  ages 
to  which  we  look  forward. 

1.  For  we  have  confessed  our  faith  in  the 
Church  as  a  living  body,  a  holy  temple  fitted 
for  worship,  an  organized  empire.  Of  these 
facts,  indeed,  as  far  as  external  tests  may  be 
applied,  we  have  as  immediate  knowledge  as 
we  have  of  the  existence  of  any  other  organism 
or  structure  or  corporate  institution;  as  to  that 
which  they  signify,  the  real  and  essential  mean- 
ing of  them  all,  we  are  assured  that  our  belief 
160 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    161 

is  not  groundless,  but  rather  that  our  convic- 
tions are  strengthened  by  history  and  experi- 
ence. The  Church,  moreover,  we  are  persuaded, 
has  had  in  all  the  years  of  its  existence  thus 
far  historic  unity  and  vital  continuity,  and  it 
holds  with  gladness  to  the  promise  of  perpetuity, 
guarding  it  among  its  chief  est  treasures. 

2.  All  this  we  have  declared,  and  of  the  truth 
of  all  this  we  are  fully  assured.  But  we  also 
have  confessed  with  sorrow  and  shame  that  the 
Church's  work  is  marred  by  imperfection  and 
that  her  life  has  sadly  failed  to  reach  its  ideal. 
We  know  that  this  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact 
that  she  is  finite  and  compassed  with  infirmity, 
and  that  in  her  present  state  she  may  not  expect 
to  reach  perfect  strength  or  perfect  holiness; 
and  while  we  grieve  that  she  has  not  yet  attained 
to  that  fulness  and  vigor  of  life  which  should 
be  hers,  we  thankfully  remember  that  neither 
finiteness  nor  weakness  can  of  itself  destroy 
the  work  of  God.  But  we  must  add  to  these 
marks  of  imperfection  the  divisions  of  the  organ- 
ized and  the  separations  of  the  unorganized; 
and  at  times  we  are  tempted  to  doubt  of  the 
possibility  of  the  fulfilment  of  God's  great  and 
precious  promises. 

3.  Now  there  is,  in  view  of  this  state  of  things, 
a  right  and  holy  discontent  which  should  be 
encouraged   rather   than  blamed.     To   be   satis- 


162    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

fied  with  that  which  is  imperfect  and  wrong  is 
an  error  and  a  sin.  It  is  with  the  home  of  our 
souls  as  to  the  eye  of  the  inspired  writer  it  was 
with  the  home  for  which  the  heroes  of  faith 
looked  in  the  olden  time.  They  declared  plainly, 
says  he,  that  they  were  seeking  a  country;  they 
were  not  mindful  of  that  from  which  they  had 
come  out  and  to  which  they  might  return;  their 
desire  was  for  a  better  country,  that  is  a  heavenly. 
So  we,  though  we  have  found  our  home  and  the 
abode  of  our  souls  in  the  city  of  God,  yet  con- 
fess that  its  state  is  not  yet  that  of  the  heavenly 
city,  and  we  long  for  the  perfected  state  of  that 
which  now  is  imperfect  and  marred  by  the 
hand  of  man.  We  dare  not  be  satisfied  with  the 
present  condition  of  the  city  of  God  here  on  earth ; 
and  it  should  be  the  high  ambition  and  the 
firm  hope  of  our  souls  that  the  Church  should 
be  in  character  and  in  fact,  as  it  is  now  in  dedi- 
cation, worthy  of  Him  Whose  temple  and  abode 
it  is.  The  Lord  Christ,  and  for  His  sake  we 
His  members,  cannot  rest  satisfied  with  that 
which  is  blemished  by  defect  and  disgraced  by 
evil. 

There  is  also  an  unreasonable  and  unhealthy 
and  evil  discontent,  which  despises  imperfec- 
tion as  such,  is  impatient  with  that  which  is 
making  progress  but  has  not  completed  its  ad- 
vance, and  would  bar  all  enthusiasm  from  the 
attempts  of  faithful  men  to  further  a  good  work. 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    163 

Even  this  must  be  judged  and  treated  consider- 
ately, as  often  springing  from  a  good  motive 
and  aiming  at  a  good  end;  but  in  itself  it  is 
harmful  and  wrong.  It  is  not  exactly  pessimism, 
and  it  does  not  always  impute  or  suggest  wrong 
motives;  but  it  discourages  bravery  in  the 
present  and  it  darkens  the  bright  image  of  the 
future  which  is  drawing  brave  men  on  and 
nerving  them  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the 
truth.  Almost  as  bad,  sometimes  even  worse, 
is  the  passive  acquiescence  in  the  mixed  condi- 
tion of  things  as  they  are,  in  the  falsely  named 
confidence  which,  calling  upon  God  to  act  for 
us,  refuses  to  work  with  Him  in  those  very 
matters  which  He  has  by  the  ordering  of  His 
providence  made  to  depend  largely  upon  the 
generous  and  true  action  of  our  powers  of  choos- 
ing and  furthering  the  right.  This  passes  beyond 
perverted  faith  or  indifference  to  duty;  it  is 
negligence  of  God's  appointed  means  and  the 
preferring  our  own  ways  to  God's. 

Here  then  we  find  ourselves,  in  the  disorder 
of  an  unregulated  kingdom,  in  a  body  in  which 
sometimes  the  head  is  sick  and  the  heart  is  faint, 
in  a  temple  which  often  seems  ill  fitted  for  wor- 
ship and  unsuited  for  the  divine  abode.  Yet 
it  is,  in  its  design  and  in  its  making,  the  kingdom 
of  God,  the  body  of  His  Christ,  the  temple  in 
which  His  Spirit  dwells.  What  have  we  to  say 
as  to  its  future  in  this  world  and  in  the  working 


164    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

out  of  this  dispensation,  and  as  to  the  great 
issues  when  a  new  age  shall  be  ushered  in,  the  age 
of  the  resurrection?  What  visions  of  further 
ages  are  opened  before  us  by  the  words  of  apos- 
tles and  seers?  And,  as  leading  up  to  this,  what 
position  ought  we  to  hold,  what  duty  ought  we 
to  undertake,  by  what  reasonable  and  religious 
hope  ought  we  to  encourage  ourselves,  here 
and  now? 

II 

Our  own  position,  that  of  the  historic  church 
in  this  country,  with  that  of  the  national  churches 
of  peoples  nearest  of  kin  to  us,  has  a  discourag- 
ing side,  of  course,  but  it  is  also  full  of  encourage- 
ment and  hope.  We  have  a  right  to  maintain 
that  the  position  which  we  hold  has  much  to 
confirm  our  own  convictions  and  to  attract 
devout  men  of  sober  minds  to  ourselves.  There 
is  great  strength  in  the  knowledge  that  we  repre- 
sent in  this  land  the  historic  Church  of  English- 
speaking  people,  and  that  its  historicity  is  plainly 
proven  and,  when  rightly  stated  by  us,  is  con- 
fessed by  all  who  know  the  facts,  whether  they 
agree  with  us  in  our  conviction  of  their  value  or 
not.  Add  to  this  that  the  English-speaking 
people  is  the  mission-sending  and  mission-sup- 
porting people,  and  that  the  Church  of  that  people 
has  its  representatives  in  almost  if  not  quite 
every  land  upon  this  globe;  and  we  are  strength- 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    165 

ened  in  our  faith  that  the  religious  influence  of 
the  greatest  society  of  nations  is  most  naturally 
(and  therefore  most  powerfully)  exerted  by  this 
great  historic  Church.  Upon  certain  aspects 
of  present  and  prospective  strength  we  may  for 
a  moment  dwell. 

I  am  afraid  that  we  cannot  claim  for  ourselves 
that  mark  of  strength,  both  for  defence  and  for 
advance,  which  is  to  be  found  in  sound  learning. 
We  in  this  land  are  so  young,  so  scantily  furnished 
for  deep  and  extended  study,  under  such  com- 
pulsion to  work  for  daily  bread,  endowed  with 
so  little  appreciation  of  learning  for  learning's 
sake,  in  such  danger  of  making  our  scholarship 
shallow  under  the  guise  of  breadth  and  of  limit- 
ing the  healthy  range  of  our  thought  under  the 
claim  of  being  catholic,  that  we  sometimes  fail 
in  sympathy  with  that  learning,  at  once  generous 
and  precise,  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  wisdom 
in  matters  theological.  But,  please  God,  we  shall 
never  scoff  at  sound  learning  nor  make  light  of 
its  results;  we  have  the  rich  treasures  of  the 
results  of  English  study  at  our  hands,  and  we 
have  the  ability  to  use  them  and  profit  by  them; 
we  must  believe  that  in  this  way  very  specially 
and  very  helpfully  we  are  led  along  a  path  in 
all  truth. 

While  thus,  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
our  Church  of  the  Anglican  communion  makes 
her    appeal,    as    at   the   Reformation    and    ever 


166    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

since,  to  sound  learning,  she  sets  up  no  claim 
to  a  new  revelation  nor  does  she  encourage  us 
to  frame  any  theory  for  the  improvement  of 
God's  plans.  The  revelation  of  fundamental 
truth  made  by  the  Lord  directly  or  through  those 
whom  He  specially  commissioned  she  believes 
to  have  been  in  itself  complete;  the  plans  on 
which  He  laid  the  foundations  and  by  which  He 
guided  the  superstructure  do  not  seem  to  her  to 
need  either  modification  or  strengthening.  Hold- 
ing fast  to  that  which  is  proved  to  be  from  the 
beginning,  she  has  defined  what,  in  the  adap- 
tation of  a  military  term,  has  come  to  be  called 
her  quadrilateral:  the  Scriptures,  the  Creeds, 
the  Sacraments,  the  Ministry;  and  these  being 
accepted  as  commending  their  position  by  tradi- 
tion (that  is,  testimony)  and  faith  and  reason, 
she  calls  in  all  the  learning  at  her  disposal  to 
show  their  adaptation  to  changed  times  and 
places  and  manners  of  men,  to  point  their  appli- 
cation to  special  mental  or  moral  or  intellectual 
problems,  to  draw  out  by  a  real  development 
from  the  sure  tradition  that  which  can  meet  and 
encourage  each  new  advance  in  human  know- 
ledge and  each  new  demand  of  human  life.  Won- 
derfully placed  by  God's  acts  in  history  and  in 
providence,  severely  tried  yet  graciously  con- 
served, reaching  back  to  the  foundations  and 
forward  to  the  consummation,  taught  to  fear 
no  truth  and  neither  to  suppress  nor  to  exag- 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    167 

gerate  any  aspect  of  truth — a  lesson  which  I 
verily  believe  the  Church  as  the  Church  has 
learned,  though  some  of  her  members  have 
evaded  it  or  even  tried  to  suppress  it — this 
Anglican  Church  is  for  the  English-speaking 
peoples  and  their  fellow-Christians  the  Church 
of  the  future  because  she  is  the  Church  of  the 
past,  the  Church  of  the  reconciliation  because 
she  is  the  Church  of  the  unchanging  founda- 
tion. With  humility  but  with  sure  confidence, 
she  knows  that  from  the  gifts,  the  charismata, 
which  God  has  given  her  she  can  offer  much  to 
those  who — as  a  rule  by  no  fault  of  their  own — 
are  not  yet  thus  endowed.  She  would  rather 
consider  what  it  is  M^hich  she  is  able  to  give  and 
must  give  from  these  charismata  than  listen  to 
the  suggestion  that  she  give  up  some  part  or 
other  of  her  endowment;  while  on  the  other 
hand  she  is  ready  to  receive  from  the  learning 
and  piety  and  spiritual  endowments  of  others 
the  fruits  of  those  gifts  of  truth  and  grace  with 
which  God  has  endowed  and  adorned  them. 
She  is  learning,  I  believe,  that  when  we  all  seek 
to  give  we  shall  all  come  near  to  that  complete 
furnishing  which  the  Lord  intended  for  His 
one  Body,  the  Catholic  Church.  And  we  in  this 
land,  where  we  are  not  trammelled  by  subjection 
to  the  State,  where  our  free  episcopacy  is  purely 
ecclesiastical,  where  our  power  of  adaptation 
is  in  part  understood  and  our  adherence  to  the 


168    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

fundamentals  is  respected — we  in  this  land 
may  thank  God  for  the  position  which  we  hold 
and  the  opportunities  which  are  ready  at  our 
hand. 

2.  Thus  we — I  am  speaking  especially  of  our 
own  Church,  but  the  thoughts  have  a  wider 
application — have  a  future  of  hope  opening 
before  us  in  this  dispensation.  We  look  con- 
fidently for  life  continuing  and  life  becoming 
more  abundant;  for  growth  which  can  be  mani- 
fested and  growth  which  may  be  felt;  for  a 
clearer  vision  of  truth  and  a  stronger  hold  upon 
it;  for  the  power  to  set  things  in  their  true  places 
and  to  see  them  in  their  true  perspective;  for 
courage  to  act  and  for  patience  to  wait;  for 
faith  and  hope  and  charity;  for  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  ourselves  and  a  better  understanding 
of  others;  for  more  self-sacrifice  and  humility; 
for  the  thankful  recognition  of  what  we  have 
received  and  of  our  responsibility  for  it,  and  the 
devout  search  for  other  gifts  and  other  fields  of 
service;  for  the  furtherance  of  those  attributes 
of  unity  and  holiness  and  catholicity  and  apos- 
tolicity  which  are,  each  in  its  way,  necessary 
marks  of  the  Church.  We  have  received  and 
are  using  much  bestowed  on  us  by  the  Head  of 
the  Church  to  His  great  glory;  we  are  capable 
of  receiving  and  able  to  use  much  more  from  Him 
and  for  Him.     His  be  the  glory ! 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    169 

3.  With  all  this,  however,  there  are  great 
and  evident  dangers,  some  almost  impending 
and  others  which  may  soon  become  very  serious. 
Some  of  them,  as  is  readily  recognized,  belong 
especially  to  our  own  time,  and  some  are  recur- 
tent  as  seeming  to  be  faults  inherent  in  human 
nature. 

We  are  in  a  real  danger  of  wearying  of  the 
restraints  of  the  trust  committed  to  us,  and  of 
impatiently  seeking  to  cast  them  off.  Now  a 
trust  which  calls  for  no  restraints  and  involves 
no  obligations  is  no  real  trust;  it  is  not  worth 
a  man's  while  to  be  concerned  about  it;  and  if 
we  thus  reckon  it,  we  must  reject  or  at  least 
surrender  it.  This  indifference  may  make  its 
appearance  and  work  in  either  of  two  directions; 
the  Church  may  suffer  from  both  errors,  while 
some  of  her  members  turn  from  her  well-marked 
path  on  this  side  and  some  on  that.  We  all 
need  to  be  on  our  guard  lest  we  allow  our  Church- 
manship  to  become  narrow  and  also  lest  we  allow 
it  to  divagate  into  shallow  breadth.  Into  either 
error  we  may  lapse  from  a  false  apprehension 
of  the  trust  committed  to  us  or  from  the  notion 
that  freedom  cannot  be  shown  except  by  a  wanton 
rejection  of  all  limitation.  This  is  a  serious 
danger  to-day,  when  "  entangling  alliances  " 
seem  to  be  alluring  us  in  the  direction  of  breaking 
with  the  historic  organization  on  which  so  much 
depends   in   our   scheme   of  ecclesiastical   order, 


170    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  in  another  direction  we  are  tempted  to  deny, 
or  at  least  to  imperil,  our  belief  in  some  definite 
or  implied  article  of  the  faith  in  the  hope  of 
adapting  that  faith  to  the  mind  of  this  present 
world  at  this  present  time. 

There  is  reason  for  great  caution  in  making 
or  advocating  schemes  for  unity  in  the  acts  or 
the  beliefs  of  Christian  men  who  are  not  at 
one  in  faith  or  order,  lest  we  create  a  league  of 
one  part  of  Christendom  professedly  against 
another  part,  and  while  we  seem  to  bring  together 
those  who  can  have  but  a  slight  or  even  a  nega- 
tive bond  of  fellowship  find  that  it  results  in 
widening  the  chasm  which  separates  us  from 
others  who  in  many  ways  are  more  like  ourselves. 
A  league  of  anti-Baptists  or  anti-Unitarians  or 
anti-Romanists  in  the  present  state  of  Christen- 
dom is  a  serious  impediment  to  Christian  unity 
as  it  is  a  serious  menace  to  Christian  charity; 
and  the  same  thing  would  be  true  of  a  league 
or  federation  of  anti-  or  non-Episcopalians. 
Any  one  of  these  could  not  but  be  moved  by  a 
spirit  of  narrowness;  whereas  the  recent  union 
of  two  strong  bodies  of  Presbyterians  in  Scot- 
land and  the  overtures  for  their  union  with  the 
established  Kirk,  all  having  exactly  the  same 
faith  and  order  but  separated  by  events  which 
have  now  become  purely  historical  and  by 
theories  which  are  naught  but  theories — such 
union  as  this  comes  from  a  generous  spirit  and 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    171 

is  the  mark,  as  it  is  the  promise,  of  great  strength 
and  progress.  For  ourselves  in  this  land,  is  there 
anything  more  evidently  and  more  simply  our 
duty  than  to  call  back  those  who  not  long  ago 
unnecessarily  (may  not  this  be  said  now?)  left 
us  to  form  the  body  which  they  called  Reformed 
Episcopal? 

There  is  also  a  very  real  and  serious  danger 
at  this  time  in  the  opposite  direction  of  apparent 
but  unreal  breadth,  on  the  direct  road  to  neo- 
Unitarianism ;  it  would  claim  for  itself  modesty, 
but  it  is  really  based  on  indifference  as  to  the  fact 
of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  the 
beginning  of  a  movement  of  thought  which  may 
be  far  more  serious  than  the  Unitarian  movement 
of  a  century  and  more  ago.  That  was  in  fact 
Arianism,  the  result  of  a  reaction  against  the 
tritheism  of  the  Calvinists;  its  leaders,  as  has 
been  said,  did  not  reject  the  Catholic  faith 
because  they  had  never  had  it  fairly  proposed 
to  them;  and  they  did  hold  to  the  miraculous 
birth  and  the  actual  resurrection  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  That  Arianism  has  degenerated 
into  Socinianism,  the  humanitarianism  now  prev- 
alent in  some  parts  of  New  England.  But 
there  is  growing  in  the  societies  of  the  Congre- 
gational order  a  new  form  of  denial  of  the  Lord's 
divinity  (or  deity),  based  as  I  was  saying  on  the 
notion  that  this  is  not  an  essential  part  of  the 
belief  of  Christian  men,  or  oftener  on  the  per- 


172    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

suasion  that  it  is  of  little  importance  and  prac- 
tically a  thing  indifferent.  Some  of  the  most 
venerable  Congregational  "  Churches  "  are  omit- 
ting the  use  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  a  symbol 
of  membership  or  of  any  kindred  form  which 
confesses  the  deity  of  Jesus  Christ,  giving  as  their 
reason  that  the  doctrine  is  too  hard  for  young 
candidates  for  admission  to  understand  or  that 
it  embarrasses  practical  religion  with  dogmatic 
phraseology;  and  this,  when  their  spiritual 
fathers  would  gladly  have  suffered  and  died 
for  the  faith  of  Christendom  as  to  the  Godhead 
of  the  Eternal  Son  and  His  Incarnation.  The 
danger  has  reached  us  also,  not  in  exactly  the 
same  way,  yet  with  the  same  tendencies  and  with 
perhaps  greater  cause  for  dread  as  to  the  results. 
It  is  much  to  be  feared  that  some  of  us,  men  of 
learning  and  influence,  may  acquiesce  in  an 
estimate  of  Christ  and  a  teaching  of  His  posi- 
tion and  His  relation  to  us  quite  inferior  to  that 
which  is  contained  in  the  Creeds  and  has  been 
the  historic  faith  of  Christendom.  We  may  use 
the  same  confession,  so  they  seem  to  say,  by  a 
sort  of  pragmatism  or  by  a  qualifying  interpreta- 
tion; but  the  result  is,  at  the  very  least,  that  the 
place  of  Christ  as  the  divine  Lord  of  our  souls, 
claiming  our  allegiance,  is  not  fully  allowed, 
and  that  our  worship  of  Him  is  not  absolute 
and  with  the  entire  surrender  of  our  souls. 
Some  men  even  seem  to  be  beginning  to  say, 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    173 

in  these  times  of  trouble  in  which  men's  hearts 
fail  them  for  fear,  that  Jesus  Christ  and  those 
who  believe  in  Him  are  hindering  the  progress 
of  the  world,  teaching  principles  and  rules  of 
conduct  which  cannot  be  tolerated  by  those 
who  must  maintain  the  world-power;  it  behooves 
us  to  be  very  watchful  lest  our  faith  in  Him 
become  weakened  and  our  confession  of  Him 
become  less  outspoken  than  has  been  our  wont. 
The  new  Unitarianism  may  get  a  hold  on  us 
while  we  think  that  we  are  but  making  conces- 
sions in  words  to  those  whose  real  convictions 
are  strong;  we  can  but  fear  for  ourselves  when 
we  find  our  neighbor's  houses  weakening  in  their 
foundations. 

I  may  perhaps  suggest  one  other  danger,  of 
an  opposite  kind  to  that  last  spoken  of,  a  danger 
which  is  not  new  but  recurrent  in  such  wise  as 
to  require  that  we  keep  on  our  guard  against 
it — that  of  calling  by  the  name  of  Catholicity 
what  is  in  reality  but  a  form  of  narrow  Donatism, 
using  a  great  and  generous  and  comprehensive 
name  for  a  narrow  and  individual  conception 
of  God's  truth  and  a  restrictive  definition  of 
those  in  whom  we  are  willing  to  acknowledge  it. 
We  certainly  need  to  beware  of  tying  down  a 
great  revelation  to  that  interpretation  of  it  which 
we  chance  to  like  and  of  declaring  that  none  are 
faithful  to  it  who  do  not  express  their  fidelity  in 
our  special  way. 


174    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

But,  while  we  do  not  deny  that  there  are  these 
and  other  Hke  dangers,  and  while  we  must  not 
fail  to  confess  it  our  duty  to  recognize  them  and 
to  be  on  our  guard  against  them,  we  must  also 
gladly  acknowledge  the  great  strength  and  en- 
couragement which  come  to  us  from  the  truth 
so  largely  held  and  earnestly  maintained  through- 
out the  Christian  world  in  regard  to  God,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  the  value  of  its  ordinances,  and  the 
power  of  its  sacramental  life.  And  we  do  well, 
moreover,  to  remember  with  gratitude  that  the 
influence  of  the  Church,  both  for  righteousness 
and  for  truth,  is  felt  and  aclaiowledged  in  the 
world  which  the  Church  is  bidden  to  serve, 
the  world  which  is  not  only  in  purpose,  but  also 
to  some  extent  really,  the  kingdom  of  God. 
But  on  this  we  cannot  now  dwell,  as  we  need  to 
venture  upon  some  view  of  the  future  as  follow- 
ing from  suggestions  already  made. 


Ill 

1.  The  conflict  with  the  world  is  not  ended, 
either  as  it  exercises  upon  us  a  power  of  attrac- 
tion or  as  it  wages  war  against  us.  The  prin- 
ciples of  the  world-power,  of  the  nondescript 
beast  which  represents  the  fourth  great  empire 
and  of  the  like  savage  creatures  which  show 
the    counterfeits    or   the   revivals   of   its   power 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    175 

in  later  days,  these  have  worked  in  or  against 
the  Church — more  seriously  against  it  when 
within  it — since  the  days  of  Constantine.  The 
seer  who  had  a  vision  of  the  Church  in  her  first 
glory,  bright  and  holy,  the  vision  of  which  we 
read  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Revelation, 
soon  was  bidden — the  record  is  but  five  chapters 
later — to  see  her  riding  on  the  beast,  subservi- 
ent to  the  world,  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the 
saints.  She  began  the  record  of  weakness  and 
shame  by  making  her  work  a  part  of  the  world- 
scheme;  and  to  this  error,  under  the  name  of 
establishment,  she  is  still  in  some  countries 
enslaved:  she  passed  on  to  claim  for  herself  the 
imperial  power  over  nations  and  kingdoms;  and  in 
one  conspicuous  instance  she  has  long  weakened 
her  spirituality  by  her  demand  to  hold  worldly 
sway  and  to  receive  worldly  homage.  Against 
these  errors,  neither  of  which  as  an  element  of 
practical  failure  is  limited  to  the  places  where 
it  is  formally  or  practically  professed,  the  Church 
as  she  looks  into  the  future  must  determine 
to  be  on  her  guard.  She  must  be  separate  from 
the  world,  wherever  and  however  the  world 
is  represented  by  Babylon,  even  as  Israel  was 
bidden  to  come  out  and  be  separate  from  the 
great  city  whose  very  name  suggested  confusion 
and  every  page  of  whose  history  told  of  tyranny 
and  cruelty.  For  our  subservience  to  that  city, 
our  acceptance  of  its  customs  and  laws,  there 


176    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

is   the  constant  call   for   repentance  and  refor- 
mation. 

2.  Yet  in  the  world,  as  we  view  it  in  another 
aspect,  no  matter  how  unpromising  or  how 
hostile,  we  are  to  recognize  the  field  for  God's 
truth  and  God's  grace  of  which  we  have  been 
in  some  part  put  in  charge.  The  evangelical 
prophet  looked  forward  to  the  day  when  Israel 
should  be  "  the  third  with  Egypt  and  with 
Assyria,  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  land," 
when  Israel's  God  should  say,  "  Blessed  be 
Egypt  my  people,  and  Assyria  the  work  of  my 
hands,  and  Israel  my  inheritance."  *  Thus  in 
the  world  we  must  acknowledge  all  that  is  good 
and  search  with  confidence  for  all  that  can  be 
made  good.  The  Church  ministers  a  priest- 
hood for  all  mankind  and  for  all  the  creation; 
and  she  must  bring  before  God  for  healing,  for 
strength,  for  blessing  all  that  God  has  made  and 
especially  all  whom  He  has  redeemed.  And, 
if  possible,  she  must  bring  it  as  a  willing  offer- 
ing. The  whole  world  cannot  at  once  be  led 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church;  but  some 
part  of  it  may  at  least  be  ready  to  accept  services 
that  the  Church  can  render,  to  use  its  head, 
its  heart,  its  hands,  as  those  of  a  servant,  and 
thus  to  take  something  from  it  which  may  per- 
haps relieve  its  weariness  or  lighten  its  burdens 

•  Isaiah  xix.  24,  26. 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    177 

or  quiet  its  complaints  or  remedy  its  injustice. 
Even  now  the  Church  benefits  many  a  one  who 
does  not  know  of  it,  or  knowing  it  despises  it; 
this  is  true  priestly  service,  all  the  more  true 
and  all  the  more  priestly  for  being  unseen  and 
unrecognized.  In  this  well-doing  the  Church 
must  not  be  weary;  we  who  are  in  the  Church 
and  should  be  engaged  in  this  well-doing  must 
not  suffer  the  Church  to  become  weary;  we  must 
remember  that  the  world  is  God's,  the  heritage 
which  he  has  given  to  His  Son. 

3.  Yet,  to  return  once  again  to  the  warnings 
which  we  may  not  neglect,  we  must  be  prepared 
not  to  be  discouraged  or  fall  away  at  the  great 
declension  which  may  come,  which  may  at  any 
time  be  impending.  The  prophets  of  old  time 
gave  warning  of  such  declension;  it  came,  and 
the  remnant  was  saved:  the  New  Testament 
prophets  foresaw  a  like  falling  away  before  the 
end  should  come,  and  they  bade  us  not  fear  in 
the  time  of  trouble,  even  if  the  Son  of  Man  should 
at  the  last  scarce  find  faith  on  the  earth.  But 
we — and  those  especially  who  are  now  near  the 
beginning  of  their  active  life,  and  who  may  see 
more  of  the  evil  that  is  coming  on  the  earth  than 
shall  we  whose  days  are  moving  towards  the  end 
— we  must  be  braced  against  the  possibility  of 
a  weakening  of  our  courage  and  perhaps  of  active 
opposition   because  of  our   Christian   faith   and 


178    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

our  allegiance  to  our  Master.  Armenia  is  not 
the  only  land  in  which  religious  persecution  is 
possible,  nor  are  the  Turks  the  only  nation  who 
may  think  that  the  doctrines  and  practice  of 
Christianity  are  a  hindrance  to  their  progress. 
We  too  may  perhaps  be  called  to  quit  us  like 
men  and  suffer  for  the  truth's  sake. 

IV 

1.  Thus  far  to-day  our  thoughts  have  been 
turned  towards  the  future;  and  in  fact,  it  would 
be  but  an  imperfect  study  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  Church's  witness  to  herself,  however 
restricted  it  might  be  by  the  limits  of  time  or  the 
ability  of  the  speaker,  which  should  fail  to  look 
at  the  promises  made  to  the  Church  or  the 
hope  by  which  the  Church  is  inspired.  We 
have  noted  already  that  we  are  to  be  prepared 
for  a  future  which  may  have  much  to  try  our 
patience  and  test  our  faith;  that  we  must  be 
ready  at  all  times  to  contend  for  the  truth  and  to 
submit  our  allegiance  to  any  test  that  may  be 
applied.  On  the  other  hand — nay  rather,  in 
consequence  of  this,  we  have  firm  confidence 
in  the  progress  of  the  life  of  God  among  men 
and  of  His  Kingdom;  as  also  we  cannot  doubt 
of  the  continued  life  and  increased  vitality  of 
the  Body  of  Christ,  of  the  extensive  and 
still  more  of  the  intensive  life  of  the  Church. 
That  God  is  the  King  of  the  earth  and  that  His 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    179 

kingdom  by  right  extends  to  all  mankind;  that 
man  is  so  constituted  as  to  be  adapted  to  God's 
righteous  dominion  and  under  its  guidance  to 
advance  to  thankful  acceptance  of  it;  that  unto 
Him  every  knee  shall  bow  in  worship  and  every 
tongue  shall  swear  in  allegiance;  of  all  this  we 
are  satisfied.  We  know  that  this  worship  and 
allegiance  must  be  willingly  offered,  must  be  the 
moral  acknowledgment  of  moral  beings  rendered 
to  a  God  who  will  not  accept  anything  less  than 
this,  and  that  therefore  the  progress  must  be 
slow  and  the  final  issue  subject  to  long  delay. 
Moreover,  we  know  not  the  time  that  remains 
for  this  dispensation  or  order  of  things,  nor 
how  this  very  dispensation  may  be  broken  up 
by  disorders  like  that  which  afflicts  the  world 
to-day ;  and  for  that  reason  we  cannot  tell  how 
much  of  the  progress  of  this  kingdom  belongs 
to  an  order  beyond  that  with  which  we  have 
specially  to  do;  but  that  an  advance  will  here 
and  now  be  made  towards  the  full  establishment 
of  the  Kingdom  we  cannot  doubt.  So  also  the 
Church,  the  company  of  the  elect,  whose  life  is 
progressive,  whose  work  is  constant  and  ever 
advancing,  the  Church  which  is  the  Body  of  the 
incarnate  Lord  and  in  which  as  it  grows  to 
perfection  His  Incarnation  is  ever  approaching 
its  absolute  perfection,  the  Church,  now  in  a 
way  within  the  kingdom  but  seeking  to  bring 
that  kingdom  in  its  fulness  into  its  own  life — 


180    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

shall  be  quickened  by  its  activities  and  by  its 
sufferings  in  this  age,  and  by  the  glory  which  we 
confidently  expect  for  it  in  the  age  to  come, 
until  like  the  Master  it  shall  gain  its  great  victory 
over  death. 

2.  We  may  picture  to  ourselves,  or  see  reflected 
as  from  a  mirror  before  the  eyes  of  our  mind, 
the  Church  in  its  completeness,  those  who  have 
been  called  from  death  to  resurrection  and  those 
who  welcome  the  returning  Lord  from  life,  the 
number  of  the  elect  fulfilled,  brought  into  a  new 
stage  of  its  history,  as  to  which  we  may  presently 
venture  to  speak.  The  test  which  the  Lord  is 
to  apply  to  the  members  of  His  Body,  as  we  read 
in  the  first  of  His  three  great  pictures  of  judg- 
ment,* is  the  reality  of  their  waiting  for  Him, 
their  readiness  to  receive  Him  and  to  enter  into 
His  palace.  We  may  gain  from  the  parable 
which  follows  and  from  that  of  the  pounds 
an  idea  of  what  shall  be  the  judgment  of  the 
Kingdom,  in  which  the  decision  must  be  made 
as  to  every  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is.  Some 
who  have  had  authorit}^  in  that  kingdom  will 
render  an  account  of  work  well  done;  among 
them  some  will  prove  by  the  return  which  they 
make  that  they  are  fitted  for  a  greater  and  some 
for  a  less  responsibility;  and  they  shall  be  given 
a  work  for  God  proportionate  to  the  fitness  which 

•  Matthew  xxv. 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    181 

they  have  shown  by  their  former  faithfulness, 
and  a  share  in  the  Lord's  joy  at  the  new  and 
well-ordered  stage  of  His  work.  Some,  it  will 
then  appear,  will  confess  that  they  cannot  carry 
even  a  small  responsibility,  but  shirking  it,  will 
desire  only  to  show  that  the  Master  has  not 
sustained  any  loss  by  reason  of  their  negligence; 
and  they,  for  the  while  at  least,  lose  their  oppor- 
tunity of  service,  or  rather  fail  to  receive  such 
opportunity  because  they  have  not  used  that 
which  before  they  had.  But  the  kingdom,  thus 
organized,  shall  continue;  it  shall  have  a  care 
of  the  souls  of  men,  and  under  it — perhaps  not 
all  at  once,  but  certainly — all  the  universe 
shall  be  brought  under  Christ  as  its  one  head, 
in  a  sense  unattainable  while  the  conditions  of 
this  present  world  remained.  The  kingdom  cer- 
tainly has  this  continuance  in  itself,  and  for 
the  purposes  declared  of  old;  the  survivals  of 
the  former  empires  having  been  purged  away, 
so  far  as  they  belonged  to  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  and  were  not  preparations  for  the  one  king- 
dom of  the  Lord  and  of  His  Christ,  the  Lord  shall 
be  king  over  all  mankind:  "  He  shall  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness  and  minister  true  judg- 
ment unto  the  people."  The  word  '  natural  ' 
must  be  used  with  hesitation;  but  it  would  seem 
that  we  may  best  describe  the  state  of  the  king- 
dom in  the  new  dispensation  for  which  we  are 
looking  as  a  state  of  natural  righteousness,  lead- 


182    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

ing  on  to  a  state  of  natural  holiness  and  eternal 
life. 

3.  Within  the  kingdom,  as  its  heart  directing 
and  maintaining  its  life,  is  the  Church,  which  in 
the  next  age  when  it  has  become  deathless  is  to 
stand  in  that  new  relation  to  Him  for  which  it 
shall  have  become  meet;  without  the  kingdom, 
if  we  understand  aright  what  has  been  revealed, 
there  must  be  the  nations.  If  the  Church  is 
the  city  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom,  the  abode 
of  the  nations  is  beyond  the  limits  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  "  The  nations,"  we  read,  "  dwell 
in  the  light  of  the  city;  and  the  kings  of  the 
earth  do  bring  their  glory  and  honor  into  it." 
They — the  nations — are  to  be  judged,  not  on 
the  ground  of  their  personal  allegiance  to  Christ 
Whom  they  have  not  known,  not  by  the  test  of 
their  use  of  God-given  responsibilities  which 
as  such  they  have  not  received,  but  by  the  law 
of  nature,  by  the  response  of  their  lives  to  the 
calls  made  upon  their  instincts  and  their  sym- 
pathies; and  those  who  have  made  the  response, 
as  you  will  remember  from  the  Lord's  words, 
will  be  amazed  to  find  that  the  Son  of  Man 
before  Whom  in  His  great  glory  they  stand, 
will  acknowledge  those  acts  of  simple  goodness 
as  done  to  Him.  Those  among  the  nations 
who  have  thus  shown  the  goodness  of  their 
character,  though  they  knew  not  what  it  meant, 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    183 

shall  enter  into  life  eternal,  a  condition  of  free 
activity  and  aptitude  which  must  (we  should  say) 
at  least  admit  them  to  the  kingdom;  their  place, 
it  would  seem,  because  they  have  true  life,  is 
no  longer  among  the  nations.  On  the  other 
hand  those  whose  character  will  not  endure 
the  only  test  which  can  be  justly  applied  to  it, 
they  who  in  refusing  service  to  their  neighbors 
have  refused  service  to  the  great  King,  go  into 
eternal  restraint;  they  remain  under  natural 
laws  and  are  governed  on  the  principle  of  natural 
retribution.  If  the  punishment — the  loss,  if 
that  is  the  better  word — of  the  unfaithful  member 
of  the  Church  is  that  there  is  no  place  for  him 
at  the  wedding-feast;  if  that  of  the  indolent  sub- 
ject of  the  kingdom  is  that  he  is  given  no  place 
in  its  activity;  so  that  of  the  useless  man  among 
the  nations  is  that  he  must  be  kept  under  the 
operation  of  natural  laws  and  his  doings  must 
be  kept  under  discipline.  So  much,  I  think, 
we  can  see  of  the  age  which  is  to  follow  this,  of 
the  principles  on  which  it  is  to  be  administered, 
and  of  the  state  of  men  after  they  have  reached 
it.  The  Church,  the  Kingdom,  the  nations  re- 
main; a  new  age  has  begun,  and  its  principles 
have  been  determined  by  those  of  the  age  which 
has  passed.  We  are  told  little  indeed  of  that  new 
age;  but  the  little  which  we  are  told  biings  us  an 
inspiration  of  hope. 


184    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


1.  With  the  entrance  of  the  new  age,  as  it 
would  appear,  the  Church  becomes  the  Bride 
of  Christ.  The  metaphor  is  found  in  the  Old 
Testament,  where  the  prophet  Jeremiah  in  very 
striking  words  speaks  of  Israel,  the  Church  of  the 
older  dispensation,  as  the  wife  of  Jehovah,  tell- 
ing of  His  love  for  her  and  of  His  longing  to  call 
her  back  after  she  has  unfaithfully  departed  from 
Him;  and  in  other  prophets  we  find  the  same 
figure  used  with  beauty  of  imagery.*  St.  Paul, 
too,  in  this  very  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  bids 
men  love  their  wives  even  as  Christ  loved  the 
Church  and  gave  Himself  for  her,  that  He  might 
present  her  to  Himself,  f  It  was  left  for  the  writer 
of  the  Apocalypse  in  express  words  to  speak  of  the 
Church  as  the  bride  of  Christ,  the  queen,  that 
is  to  say,  in  His  kingdom.  |  And  here,  as  in 
Jeremiah,  we  seem  to  be  told  that  it  is  the  be- 
trothed, at  first  all  glorious,  and  then  for  a  time 
forsaking  her  husband  for  the  attractions  of  the 
world,  who  is  called  back  and  at  her  Lord's 
return  is  prepared  for  him  clothed  in  the  fine 
linen  which  is  the  righteousness  of  saints.  St. 
Paul,  too,  seems  to  suggest  the  same;  for  in  the 
passage  which  was  just  quoted  in  part,  he  says 
that  Christ  gave  Himself  for  the  Church,  "  that 
He  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  her  by  the  wash- 
*  Jeremiah  iii. ;  Hosea  ii.        f  Ephesians  v.        jiRevelation  jod. 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    185 

ing  of  water  by  the  word,  that  He  might  present 
her  to  Himself  holy  and  without  blemish." 
And  to  show  that  He  not  only  is  to  cleanse  her 
from  defilement  and  sin  but  also  is  to  give  her 
the  immortal  youth  which  is  His  own,  the  Apostle 
adds  of  her  "  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any 
such  thing."  The  perfected  Church,  then,  with 
the  grace  of  cleansing  and  of  dedication,  is  to 
stand  towards  Christ  in  the  closest  of  all  possible 
relations.  He  took  human  nature,  that  He 
might  impart  the  divine  nature  to  men,  even  to 
such  as  believe  in  His  name;  and  the  company 
of  men  on  whom  He  bestowed  this  gift  He  made 
to  be  His  body,  that  as  it  should  grow  to  per- 
fection He  might  become  perfectly  incarnate 
in  it;  and  when  this  body  has  through  many 
trials  been  brought  to  its  perfection,  he  seems 
to  give  it  a  yet  more  distinct  personality  than 
before  and  takes  that  body  as  His  Bride  to 
share  with  Him  His  throne.  It  is  for  this 
that  the  Lord  is  waiting  now,  with  His  unfail- 
ing love  and  His  unwearied  patience;  if  it 
may  be  described  in  one  place  as  expecting 
until  His  enemies  be  made  His  footstool,  we 
are  told  elsewhere  that  the  victory  over  the 
world  is  the  perfecting  of  the  Church;  and  as 
the  vision  which  we  have  had  of  a  city  and 
a  kingdom  seems  to  merge  into  that  of  a 
palace  and  a  city,  we  may  perhaps  venture 
to    say    that    when    the    Church    becomes    the 


186    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Bride,  the  Kingdom  comes  into  the  place  of  the 
Church. 

2.  But  we  are  trying  to  look  too  closely,  it 
may  be,  into  that  which  is  but  partially  revealed, 
and  to  describe  that  which  cannot  now  be  fully 
told  or  even  fully  known;  and  the  revelation  of 
one  more  age,  and  that  at  its  beginning,  opens 
but  a  little  way  the  mystery  of  God  which  is 
yet  to  be  revealed.  Of  this  at  least  I  think  we 
may  be  well  assured:  that  the  Church  will  ever 
have  a  duty  to  the  kingdom  and  to  the  nations, 
akin  to  the  duty  which  is  incumbent  on  her  now. 
As  the  Body  she  must  ever  be  the  means  by  which 
He  will  extend  the  benefits  of  His  mediation 
to  those  of  mankind  who  are  not  of  His  body; 
as  the  Queen  she  must  be  the  distributor  of  His 
royal  bounty;  through  the  Church  also  the 
nations  will  be  blessed,  receiving  the  benediction 
of  His  beneficent  and  all-righteous  reign.  The 
Church  cannot  but  be  ever  priestly  and  ever 
ministerial;  grace  will  be  given  her  more  amply, 
that  she  may  more  freely  disburse  its  treasures; 
wisdom  will  be  granted  her  more  freely,  that  she 
may  make  known  to  the  nations  beyond  her 
present  powers  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ, 
and  it  may  be  that  unto  the  principalities  and 
powers  in  the  heavenlies  she  may  still  disclose 
the  manifold — the  diversely  variegated — wisdom 
of  which  He  is  the  source.     '*  Whose  kingdom 


THE  BRIDE  AND  THE  KINGDOM    187 

shall  have  no  end,"  so  declared  the  angel  of  the 
Annunciation;  "  Whose  kingdom  shall  have 
no  end,"  so  we  profess  as  we  recite  the  great 
Creed  of  Christendom;  for  even  when  He  shall 
give  up  the  kingdom  to  the  Father  in  some 
age  beyond  those  of  which  we  are  thinking  now, 
it  will  be  "  that  God  may  be  all  in  all,"  that  the 
unity  of  Church  and  kingdom  and  redeemed 
mankind  may  be — dare  we  say  it? — merged 
in  the  unity  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  through 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

3.  For  the  attainment  of  that  great  unity, 
"  the  dream  of  the  philosopher,  the  hope  of  the 
Christian,"  we  are  bidden  to  pray  and  to  labor 
and  in  it  we  are  encouraged  to  hope  for  our 
great  blessedness.  Man's  perfection  consists  in 
knowing  God,  which  involves  our  love  and  wor- 
ship of  Him,  and  in  serving  the  brethren,  which 
includes  our  love  of  them;  and  each  of  these 
calls  us  to  great  humility.  The  Church's  supreme 
duty  is  to  worship  and  to  serve,  for  her  Head 
is  the  one  true  Worshipper  and  the  one  absolute 
Servant  of  all.  Growing  into  her  life  and  grow- 
ing in  it,  we  draw  near  to  the  Eternal  Father  and 
to  each  of  our  brothers  in  the  fellowship  of 
the  Church,  in  the  governance  of  the  Kingdom, 
in  the  life  of  mankind — nay,  to  all  that  the  Father 
hath  made.  We  have  been  chosen  as  God's 
portion  in  Christ,  that  the  Father  may  accom- 


188    THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

plish  His  eternal  purposes  in  the  universe  un- 
der Him  its  only  destined  Head.  God's  good 
pleasure  which  He  hath  purposed  in  the  Son — 
may  He  hasten  the  time  of  its  accomplishment 
in  the  Church  His  Body  and  in  us  who,  sealed  with 
His  Spirit  of  promise,  have  been  chosen  as  His 
portion ! 


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